Don't Look Back
by XxMr.Mister1991xX
Summary: Sequel to Ghosts of Years Past. Six years have passed since the Digidestined felled Devimon. Tai & Sora are finally together, as well as Tk and Kari. The Digital World appears to be at peace. Everything is going great. But is it really? Complete!
1. Six Years Later

Hello. Despite me thinking _Ghosts of Years Past_ would be my last story, I have in fact made a sequel to it. It's called _Don't Look Back_. It's named after the Boston song of the same name. I hope that you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: Yes, it's time for the infamous disclaimer again. I do not own Digimon.

* * *

_Tai and Sora threw their arms around each other. They shared a very long, very passionate kiss. Finally, Tai pulled away from Sora. "Bye, my love."_

"_...B-bye..." Sora said as Tai walked inside his apartment._

That was six years ago, after we stopped Devimon. He wanted to destroy that barrier we made with our crests and take over the Digital World. But we wouldn't let him. A lot has changed since then. All the Digidestined have grown up. Most of us have moved out of the house. Now, our digimon partners are here in the Real World with us. It's going kinda tough right now. Society has to learn to accept them, and they have to learn how to fit in. It doesn't look pretty right now, but I'm sure everything will work out okay. At least we know that the Digital World is safe now.

* * *

A certain red-haired girl walked down the street. Her name was Sora Takenouchi. Her beloved boyfriend, Tai, had called her. He wanted to meet her to ask her something. _I wonder what he's going to ask me._ Sora thought. _Could he... Is he going to ask me to marry him?_ Sora donned an ear-to-ear smile at the thought of the love of her life asking her to marry him. Sora picked her pace up, eager to meet Tai.

Sora entered the place she and Tai were to meet, the park. She looked around and saw Tai sitting on one of the benches, waiting for her. "Tai!"

Tai looked up. He saw Sora and reveled at her beauty. "Hey, hot stuff."

Sora blushed at Tai's affectionate nick name he had given her. She sat down next to Tai on the bench. "Hi, darling. You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah. I wanted to ask you something." Sora crossed her fingers that Tai was going to ask what she hoped he would. "What if... we moved in together?"

Sora did a double take at Tai. _What! _She shook her head to try and clear her thoughts. "I... uh..."

Tai ducked his head. "If you don't want to, I'll understand."

Sora thought for a moment. _We'll be living together... We won't be married, but we will be living in the same house..._ She looked at Tai. He was acting a little depressed, thinking she was going to say no. "Tai... I... I don't know what to say..."

Tai sat back up and took Sora's hand in his. "Say yes."

Sora stared into Tai's deep brown eyes. "Okay."

Tai jumped up and pumped his fist. "Yes!" Tai shouted so loud, the passerby's in the park looked over at them, inquisitive looks on their faces.

"Tai! Not so loud," Sora said, getting up off the bench to try and control Tai.

Tai faced Sora and threw his arms around her. "Sorry, baby. But, I was so happy. I had to let it out. My love is going to live with me now."

"Yeah..." Sora trailed off. _If we can't be married, then this is the next best thing._

The two of them then shared a kiss. "Get a room!" said one of the other people in the park. Tai and Sora pulled out of the kiss and started blushing.

"You first, pal!" Tai yelled back.

Sora laughed. "What does your mom think about this?"

"Who gives a damn?"

"You haven't told her about this yet?"

Tai pulled away from Sora and started pacing. He put his hands behind his back. "I live on my own now. What mama has to think means absolutely nothing to me. Screw her if she doesn't want us to live together. What's she gonna do? She doesn't run my life anymore."

Sora put her hand on her chin. "Does anybody else know about this?"

"Nope. Just us. I wanted to make sure this was going to be a surprise."

Sora walked up behind Tai and wrapped her arms around him. "I know us living together isn't going to be easy, but I'm ready to face all the challenges with you."

Tai smiled. He turned around and hugged Sora. "I love you."

Sora rested her head on Tai's chest. "I love you too."

"Come on. Let's go get you started packing."

* * *

Mrs. Kamiya slammed the phone down on the table. "I cannot believe that Tai! How could he do this to us!"

"Huh? What's wrong?" Mr. Kamiya aksed.

"Did he plan this with you! He did, didn't he! You men always work together. Always."

Mr. Kamiya got up off the couch and put his hand on his wife's shoulder. "Honey, calm down and tell me what's wrong."

Mrs. Kamiya took a deep breath. "Tai has asked Sora to move in with him."

"And that's a problem how?"

Mrs. Kamiya stormed off. "I knew you and Tai planned this together!"

Mr. Kamiya ran after his wife. "That's a lie, and you know it!"

Mrs. Kamiya ran into the bedroom and threw herself on the bed. She started crying. "Why did he do it? It's against everything I have ever taught him."

Mr. Kamiya sat down next to his wife on the bed. "Listen, Tai and Sora love each other very much."

"I know," Mrs. Kamiya said as she sat up, tears still falling from her eyes. "But if he was going to do this, why didn't he just ask Sora to marry him?"

"Honey, Tai lives on his own now. It's up to him."

"So you approve of this!"

"I have mixed feelings about it."

"We can't let them go through with this. We have to stop them some how."

Mr. Kamiya pulled his wife into a hug. "It's not up to us. This is what Tai wants. We have to abide by it."

"I should disown him for this."

"Honey... are you sure this is about Tai, and not you having trouble letting go?"

Mrs. Kamiya pulled away from her husband. "What!"

"When Tai moved out, you balled your eyes out. You loved him so much, you couldn't stand to see him leave. Now, he and Sora are going to be living together, and it's tearing you apart because you know he's all grown up now."

Mrs. Kamiya wiped her eyes. "Maybe you're right. But still... our son is going to live with his girlfriend. I thought we taught him better than that."

"What if... he's doing this because he can't afford a wedding right now? Or if he wants to make sure he and Sora can live together and not kill each other? Or both?"

Mrs. Kamiya laughed at the second part of her husband's sentence, despite how hard she had been crying. "I just want them to be happy."

"Well then, let them do it. Tai will marry Sora eventually. You can count on that."

Mrs. Kamiya nodded. "Okay. But I still don't like it."

* * *

Matt sat in his room at his desk. His hair, which was usually so neat, was messed up beyond all recognition. Big, black bags lied beneath his eyes. His breathing was fast and erratic. Being a rock star had taken a bit of a toll on him. He had to fend off fan girls **ALL** the time. Absolutely everybody just had to have his autograph. Every reporter wanted to have an interview. Then there were the constant rehearsals with the band. It seemed like they were practicing every minute of every day. All the songs he and the band practiced replayed over and over in Matt's mind. That jungle beat rang loud and clear. It never, ever, ever left. Matt ran his hands though his messy hair. He wondered what it would take to get the sound of his band's music to leave his mind. Suddenly, a knock came at the door. Matt stayed seated, thinking it was a fan girl that had found his house, or another reporter. He ignored the visitor, hoping that they would go away. But they didn't.

_'Matt! Open up!'_ said the visitor. _'It's Tk! Open up, for crying out loud!'_

Matt quickly jumped up out of his chair. He apprehensively jerked his head around the room. _Oh no! Tk's here! What do I do! Just act cool. He won't notice._ Matt grabbed something off his desk and hit it underneath his bed. _Nobody can find out..._ After making sure "it" was completely hidden out of sight, Matt ran to the door.

"About time!" Tk said as he walked inside. "I was about to call the cops because I thought you were dead or something."

"Come in, won't you?" Matt said, a little aggravated that Tk just let himself in.

"I see you're in a particularly fine mood today," Tk said, sitting down on the couch.

"What'dya want?"

"I came to.. Matt!" Tk said as he looked at Matt.

"What!"

"You look like hell."

"I knew I shouldn't have had that last beer last night."

"Matt, you need to take a couple days off from the band. This is the worst I've ever seen you."

Matt leaned up against one of the walls, then slid down it until he was sitting on the floor. "Yeah. Like that's going to happen."

"Matt, this is serious."

"Yeah. So am I. My band is my paycheck. No way am I going to take any time off."

Tk slapped his forehead. "You're so hard headed."

"Yeah, yeah. Heard it before. Now, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, yeah. I came to check on you. Dad said he hadn't heard from you in days."

Matt ran his hand through his hair. "When is dad going to learn he doesn't have to worry about me anymore? I'm not his responsibility now."

"That doesn't mean he has to stop worrying about his son."

"You mama's boy. You need to quit living off mom and move out."

"Matt, don't change the subject. Take my advice, lay off the band for a day or two."

"Duly noted. We done?"

Tk sighed. "Yeah. We are. I can see where this is going. Take care, Matt." With that, Tk let himself out. _Man, what's happening to him? He's letting himself go to hell. If he really cares about that band so much, why doesn't he take a break so he can still sing with them? If he keeps this up, he's going to end up killing himself._ Tk sighed again. Seeing his brother in his condition depressed him. He dug his cell phone out of his pocket.

"Kari? Hey, it's Tk... I just came from Matt's house... Yeah, he's fine... I think. He looked awful... Yeah. It was like he hadn't eaten anything for a whole day... Hey, can you meet me for lunch? Seeing Matt like that and dealing with his attitude has got me down... Okay... See you in a few minutes... I love you... Bye..." With that, Tk shut his phone.

Tk and Kari had become even closer then that had been before. They saw each other almost every day, and commonly had lunch together. When they were still in high school, Kari would come to every basketball game Tk had. They went to movies all the time. When they went to a horror flick, Kari would hold on tight to Tk. They were so in love.

Tk got to the cafe he and Kari were going to meet at. She was already there waiting for him. "Hey, girl," Tk said as he sat down.

"Hey there. You okay?"

Tk rubbed his face. "Not exactly. Something is wrong with Matt. I don't know what it is, but I know there's something not right with him. It's really bothering me."

"Did he hint at you that something was wrong?"

"No. I know him. I can always read like an open book. There's something he's not telling me."

"I wonder what it is..."

The two of them sat there and thought for a moment. "I dunno. I'm sure we will find out in time."

Just then, the waitress came and took their order.

* * *

Tk and Kari had finished eating and had left the cafe. "So, wanna go see a movie some time?" Tk asked.

Kari put her hand on her chin. "I would love to. But I got college and work for the rest of the week."

"Darn! That sucks."

"I know. I wanna go out with you so bad. We haven't had many chances to since I started working."

Tk pulled Kari into a hug. "I love you."

"I love you too." Tk pecked Kari and the lips. With that, they went their separate ways.


	2. Sora's Dreams

Greetings. Thank you all for your reviews on the last chapter. For a minute, I didn't think it was going to go over as well as _Ghosts _did. Thanks again. And now, back to the action.

Disclaimer: I don't own digimon.

* * *

Izzy and Tentomon ran inside their house and slammed the door shut tight. "For the last time, I AM **NOT** A MUTANT BUG!" Tentomon exclaimed.

Izzy leaned up against the door, breathing hard from the all the running he and Tentomon had just done. A small mob has chased he and Tentomon, thinking he was dangerous. "I'm sorry, Tentomon. I guess I shouldn't have brought you with me out there."

"Don't worry, Izzy. It's not your fault that humans hate me."

Izzy sighed. "They don't hate you, per say. It's just... they are having trouble accepting you right now. You are unlike anything that they have ever seen before. Don't take it personally."

"You think the good citizens would be a little... friendlier to me since I _did_ help to save their world and all."

"Relax, buddy. I'm sure they will come around eventually."

"Oh, I just can't wait for that day."

Izzy sighed again. Tentomon was right. Ever since the Digidestined had brought the digimon back to the Real World only a couple of months ago, society had been having trouble accepting the digimon. Things like what had just happened to Izzy and Tentomon were a recurring theme. The Digidestined and their partners dreamed of a day when human and digimon would live together in harmony. Tai was very adamant about this. He would always have big speeches about it. That day, however, was quite far off. And there was nothing any of them could do to speed up the process. For now, they were stuck waiting.

Tai sat on his couch, watching a soccer match as he usually did. Only, there was something different this time. "Help out any time you're ready!" Sora called from across the room. She had been unpacking all of her stuff while Tai sat on his lazy rear. "You promised me you would help me unpack."

"I said I would help you _pack_, not _unpack_."

Sora shook her head and put her hands on her hips. "You are so predicable. I knew you would do this."

Tai huffed and got up. "What do you need help with?"

"I need you to help me put my clothes up."

"Oh, not the clothes! Please!"

"Hey, if we're going to live together, then you have to help me some times."

"Okay. Lets get this over with."

He and Sora both worked feverishly to get all of Sora's many clothes put up.

* * *

Matt awoke to a rather annoying sound. It was his cell phone. Matt rolled over to his night stand to see who it was. He read the display and saw one of his band mates, Sunjuro. was calling. "What do you want, Sunjuro?"

_'Whoa. Sounds like somebody is in a bad mood.'_

"You're interrupting my sleep, that's what."

_'Sleep?Matt, it's the middle of the day.'_

"Maybe if _you_ didn't task _me_ with writing our next big effin' hit, I could sleep at night like I need to. Now, why are you bothering me?"

_'Time to practice. We need you down here.'_

"More practice? How much damn practicing do we have to do? We do the same freaking song a thousand times after we have already mastered it."

_'Come on, man. It _was _you who told us 'perfect practice makes permanent.' Practice what you preach.'_

"There's no way that I can talk you out of practicing today?"

_'Nope. Hurry up and get down here.'_

"Fine!" Matt said and forcefully shut his phone. He threw it across his bedroom, causing it to fall apart. "This sucks..." Matt trailed off. He finally got up out of bed. He grabbed his bass guitar and walked out of his apartment without even bothering to look at his hair in the mirror. This was out of character for him. He acted almost as bad as Tai about his hair. "Here we go again..." Matt said as he got into his car. "More endless practicing. Doing the same song until we're all blue in the face." Matt banged his head into the steering wheel. "Some times I hate being a rock star."

* * *

Kari walked inside her parents' apartment. She had just gotten home from work. Yawning, she took her shoes off and walked into the living room. She was going to sit down on the couch, until she saw _them_ sitting there. "Oh, now that's just great," she said with disgust. Patamon and Gatomon were cuddled up together on the couch. "Just wait until Tk hears about this. This makes four times this month."

Gatomon's ears twitched after hearing Kari. "Huh? Is that...?" Gatomon opened her eyes and her vision finally came into focus. "Kari!" Gatomon jumped up, waking Patamon up.

"What's all the commotion? What! Kari! I swear, we weren't-"

"Save it, Patamon. I'm on to you two. Tk is, too. Heck, everybody knows about you guys. Why do you have to go behind our backs? Tk and I don't do that, so why do you guys do it?

Patamon scratched his head. "Gee, I don't know."

"I guess we tried to keep it secret so long, it became second nature to us," Gatomon said.

"There's nothing to keep secret. Like I said, everybody knows. Why go through all this?"

"Kari's right. From now on, we're publicly together!" Patamon proudly said.

"Works for me," Gatomon said. "I'm tired of having to hide everything anyway."

"Tell me about it. Well, I better get back. Tk will be home from work soon, and he doesn't know I was gone. He might get worried if I'm not there."

"Okay. Bye, my love."

"Bye." With that, Patamon left and tried to beat Tk home so there would he would have to explain.

"You really love him, don't you?" Kari aksed her digimon partner.

"Yeah. I really do."

"And I can tell he loves you too."

"Yeah. He's great."

"I'm happy for you. Now, can I please sit down?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." Gatomon hopped down so Kari could sit down.

* * *

Tai and Sora sat on the couch. They had now finished unpacking and were taking a break. Tai had his arm around Sora, and she was loving every bit of it. "This is great. Just the two of us. No one around to judge us. Just us and our love."

Tai played with Sora's beautiful red hair as he watched T.V. "Yeah."

"So, how's your mother taking this?"

"She hates it with a passion. But who cares? It's none of her business anymore."

Sora rested her head on Tai's shoulder. "I hope that when we have kids, that we're good parents to them."

"Yeah." Suddenly, Tai computed what Sora said. His eyes got very wide. He slowly turned his head to face Sora. "Uh, Baby Cakes, what did you just say?"

"Hmm? Oh, I said when we have kids-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Kids! Nobody said anything about kids!"

Sora looked at Tai, her mouth agape. "You don't want to have children?"

"No, I do not. Were you not watching me growing up? Did you not see all the stupid things I did? And you're telling me you want to have a little me running around, doing all that!"

"Tai!"

"Are you daft?" Sora up off the couch and grabbed her purse. "Where you going?"

"I don't know, but I know I'm not staying here! I have dreams, and I'm not going to let you crush them!" With that, Sora walked out the door and slammed it behind her.

"Sora!" Tai pleaded, but it was too late. Tai growled. He banged his fist down on the armrest of the couch. "Damn it! Why did this have to happen! Why?" Tai laid down and got into the fetal position. "Now she's going to hate me..."

* * *

"Wow, that place had some great deals!" Mimi cheerfully chanted. She and Yolei had gone shopping at the mall.

"Yeah. We got some good stuff there," said Yolei.

Mimi and her family had moved back to Japan. Mimi had been having trouble adjusting to being back, so Yolei started hanging out with her to try and help her readjust. They did things together all the time.

"So, how's it going with you and Ken?" Mimi asked.

Yolei blushed. "Pretty good. I just wish Ken would loosen up a little. He always acts up tight."

"Oh, believe me, I know what you're talking about. I dated so many guys just like him back in America. Because they're intellects, they act all up tight. Give it a while. He'll come out of his shell."

Yolei nodded. Then, she looked over at the food court. "Hey, is that...?"

"What?"

Yolei pointed over to the food court. "Over there? Is that Sora?"

Mimi looked at where Yolei was pointing. "Yep. That's her alright. I would know her anywhere."

"Lets go say hi."

The two girls started making their way over to Sora. "Did you hear?" Yolei asked Mimi.

"What?"

"Tai and Sora moved in together."

"They did! Wow. I knew they were together, but I didn't know they were that far along."

"Yeah. Crazy, huh?"

Mimi and Yolei walked up to the table Sora was sitting at. "Well, if it isn't my favorite redhead!" Mimi said.

Sora looked up and saw Mimi. "Mimi! Hi."

"How's it going?" Yolei asked.

"Could be better."

Mimi and Yolei sat down. "What do you mean?" Mimi asked.

"Well... I don't know if you heard, but Tai and I moved in together."

"Yeah. Yolei just told me. What's the matter? Tai didn't do anything did he? Oh! I ought to kick his ass!"

"Uh, Mimi, don't you think you're jumping to conclusions?"

"Oh, right. Sorry. Please, continue."

"Well, Tai and I were sitting on the couch..."

"He said something to you that hurt your feelings?" Mimi asked

"Yeah. I told him I wanted to have kids. He was dead set against that..." Sora started to tear up.

Mimi patted Sora on her back "Oh, Sora... I'm sorry..."

"I have always dreamed about having kids. And all he can do is talk bad about it."

"Why would he be so dead set against it?"

"He said, 'I don't want to have a little me running around, doing all the stupid things I did as a child!' It broke my heart..."

Mimi hugged Sora. "Shh. It's okay. Let Tai be a hard head. He doesn't know the mistake he's making."

"Thanks, Mimi. Yolei."

"Sora, listen," Yolei said. "Tai might not like the idea of having kids now, but maybe you can talk him into it."

"Yeah, that's right," Mimi said. "Couples do this kind of thing all the time. They may fight some times, but they work it out. I'm sure you and Tai can fix this."

Sora wiped her eyes. "You think so?"

"I know so."

Just then, Tai walked up.

"What are you doing here?" Yolei asked Tai.

"I came to see my baby. Could you two give us a minute?"

Yolei nodded. She and Mimi got up. 'You better be nice,' Mimi whispered to Tai on the way by. Tai flipped Mimi 'the bird' while she wasn't looking. He sat down next to Sora.

"Sora..."

"How did you know where to find me?"

"Just a guess. Listen-"

"No, you listen! You have already put me at my wits end. Please, don't put my dreams down more. I can't take it!"

Tai threw his arms around Sora. "Come on, baby. Don't be like that." The two of them sat there hugging each other for a few minutes. Tai backed away and looked Sora in the eye. "I changed my mind?"

"About what?"

"About what you said before. I thought about it for a while. I decided, all I want is for you to be happy. And if that means us having kids, so be it."

Sora teared up again. "Oh, Tai! I love you. You're so wonderful."

"I love you too."

Mimi and Yolei watched from a distance. "Oh, isn't that beautiful?" Mimi said. She had to wipe a tear of joy from her eye.

"Yeah. So beautiful."

Tai and Sora kissed. "Come on. Lets go home."


	3. Night Out on the Town

Hello again. I hope you enjoyed the last chapter. Thanks for your reviews. This chapter contains more romance than any other chapter I have ever written before. Without farther ado, lets get back into the action.

Disclaimer: What is it that makes you think I own Digimon? 'Cause I don't.

* * *

Kari looked herself over in the mirror. She had been doing so for several minutes. _Oh no, my hair is a total mess! This outfit looks absolutely awful on me..._ Kari thought. Tk was taking her out for the first time in quite a while, and they were going to a pretty fancy restaurant, so Kari wanted to make sure she looked her best. _I look like a freak show! I bet Tk will look like a god. Of course he will. He always looks great. And he's going to be with me. We'll clash. It will be embarrassing in front of all those people._ Kari's mind continued to race. It didn't matter what she did, Kari did not like one thing she tried to look good for her love. She was so preoccupied with getting ready for her date with Tk, she didn't notice her mother walk in the room.

"Kari-"

"Ah!" Kari screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Whoa! Relax, it's just me. I came to see if you were ready yet."

Kari took a couple of deep breaths. "Sorry. I'm a little on edge."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"Okay, mom. Be honest. Do I look good?"

Mrs. Kamiya looked Kari over for a second. She was wearing a bright sun yellow dress and high heels. She had spent an hour curling her hair with a curling iron. "Yeah, you do. You look like you're going to meet somebody famous or something like that."

Kari looked back in the mirror again and sighed. "You're just saying that. I look stupid in this. I should change into something else."

"You can't. It's almost time for you to go."

"But... Tk will be all dressed up."

"You sure are obsessing over this."

Kari turned to her mother and stomped her feet. "Mom, I love Tk more than anything in the whole world. If you only knew how much this means to me."

"I do know what you are going through. I went through the whole dating process and all that. You wouldn't be here if I didn't."

Kari sighed again and sat down on her bed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"I know you didn't. But you need to loosen up some. If Tk really loves you, he won't care what you look like."

"I know he loves me from the bottom of his heart."

"Then you have nothing to worry about. You don't have to be nervous or apprehensive. You two have each other, and that's all that matters."

Kari started to relax a little. "You're right. I never thought of that before."

"There, see? You didn't have to worry yourself to death. Better hurry up. You have to leave in a few minutes." Mrs. Kamiya walked out of the room. _Boy, Tk sure doesn't know what a wonderful girl he has. She's been up since this morning getting ready for this date._

Kari got back up and looked in the mirror one last time.

"Whoa, are you going to meet the emperor?" said Gatomon as she entered the room.

"No, I'm going-"

"On a date with Tk, I know. His jaw is gonna hit the floor when he sees you."

"You really think so?"

"No doubt in my mind"

Kari donned a small grin. Then she looked at her watch. "I had better go. Tk's probably waiting for me down stairs."

"Okay. You guys have fun. And play nice."

Kari was almost out the door, but stopped to glare at Gatomon for her sarcastic remark. After putting the fear of God into Gatomon, Kari left and headed for the ground floor. She walked out into the open-air concourse and started walking toward to the elevator. Right as she pressed the button to summon the elevator, the doors opened, revealing none other than Tk standing there. "Tk!"

Tk looked up and saw Kari standing there. "Kari! I was coming to get you and- Shit, girl, you look freaking hot!"

"Uh..." Kari blushed at Tk's complement.

"Oh, pardon my language." Tk slapped himself on the mouth.

"Don't worry about it. Tai has said worse. Wow, you look so good."

Tk blushed this time. "Aw, shucks..."

"No, I mean it." Tk was wearing a black silk, long-sleeve shirt with blue jeans. He had his hair parted. "Wow. You look irresistible. There had better not be any other girls staring at you!"

"Likewise, there had better not be any dudes staring at you."

Kari threw her arms around Tk. "Don't worry. There's only one man in my world."

Tk pressed the button for the ground floor before giving Kari a quick kiss. "What good deed did I do to deserve you?"

Kari rested her head on Tk's shoulder. "I don't know, but I'm glad you did it. My life would be so empty without you."

The elevator dinged as it reached the ground floor. Tk and Kari walked out of it and out to the street hand in hand. "When are you going to get a car so you can chauffeur me around?" Kari jokingly said.

Tk chuckled. "Well, I am taking donations. You could make one to help me save up for one."

Kari laughed. "Pass on that."

"What? Don't you love me?"

"Why don't _ you_ make a donation and help _me_ out?"

Tk rolled his eyes. He looked up and noticed they had arrived. "See there? Was that really so far?"

"Uh, high heels," Kari said and pointed to her shoes.

"Oh, right. Sorry about that."

Kari couldn't help but to laugh. She was soon followed by Tk. The two of them walked inside. The waiter walked them to their table and they sat down. "So, did you know Patamon slipped out while you were at work the other day to go see Gatomon secretly?" Kari asked Tk.

"Did he now?"

"Yep. I caught them cuddling together on the couch at home."

"I bet they tried to act all innocent."

"They sure did."

"Patamon must have made a b-line to beat me home or something."

"Yeah. I told them everybody knew about them, and that it was really pointless to secretly see each other. I think they're finally going to stop sneaking around now."

"Really? Good. I'm fed up with them acting so foolishly about that. I'm going to have to remember to give Patamon hell about getting caught again later."

The two of them shared a good laugh. The waiter came and delivered their food. The two of them started telling each other old stories after they finished eating.

"...So, dad tried on one of mom's dresses while he was drunk," Kari finished her story.

Tk laughed so hard, he started to choke. "That's... the funniest thing... I have ever... heard... Haha! *cough* Haha!"

Kari looked around and noticed that people were staring at them because of how loud Tk was laughing.

"Shh! You're causing a disturbance!"

Tk coughed some more from laughing so hard. "What your dad did is a disturbance." Tk had to wipe his eyes, as he had cried from all the laughing.

Kari couldn't help but laugh too. "Don't tell anybody I told you that. Dad will have my head."

"Yeah, he's gonna have to get through me first. Nobody is going to do a darn thing to my baby!"

Kari smiled. "That's sweet of you."

"You mean so much to me. I wouldn't be able to live if something happened to two of them stared into each others' eyes. Tk leaned over the table and gave Kari a peck on the lips. They finally finished telling each other stories. Tk paid for the meal, and the two of them left.

"Oh, Tk, that was so much fun! We need to do this more often," Kari said.

"The night is still young. Our date doesn't have to be over yet."

"Well, what do you want to do now?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"I don't know. What do you- Wait! Now, don't start that again!"

"But it's so much fun."

Kari faced away from Tk and crossed her arms. She started sticking her lower lip out and pouting. "You're mean!"

"Oh, come on! I was just joking."

Kari giggled "You fall for that every time!"

Tk rolled his eyes. "You done yet? What do you want to do now?"

"Hmm... Wanna go ride the Odaiba ferris wheel?"

"You know, I have never been in that thing. That's a great idea."

"Well, come on! What are we waiting for?"

* * *

Tk and Kari walked to a park bench near where the ferris wheel was. Kari sat down, her footing a little shaky. "Wow, it was _so_ scary when that thing got really high up..."

"Oh, please. I've been higher up in the air riding on Angemon."

"Well, brag about it why don't you?"

Tk chuckled. He sat down next to Kari on the bench. She laid her head on his shoulder. "Did you have fun tonight?"

"Yeah. This has been one of the best nights of my life."

Tk kissed Kari on the forehead. "Good. I'm happy you had fun."

Kari wrapped her arms around Tk. "Promise me we'll always be together?"

Tk wrapped his arms around Kari as well. "Promise. I love you too much to let you go."

Kari stared up into Tk's beautiful blue eyes. _His eyes are so pretty. I could just sit here and stare at them all night._ The two shared a passionate kiss. The kiss lasted for more than five minutes. Neither one of them wanted this moment to end. It was the best thing either of them had ever felt. Finally, they broke apart for some much-needed air.

"Wow... That was... absolutely awesome..." Tk trailed off. "I love you so much."

Kari rested her head on Tk's chest. "I love you too."

"I love you more."

"No, I love _you_ more."

"I love you so much, I would die for you."

"I would die for you, too."

The two of them sat there and hugged each other for what seemed like forever. "It's getting late. We had better get you back home," Tk said. "We don't want your parents to freak."

Kari sat up. "Yeah. Mom is stressed out enough with Tai and Sora moving in together."

The two of them reluctantly got up and started making their way back to Kari's apartment. Tk walked Kari up to her door just like he had done when they were still in school. "Good night, baby," Tk said.

"'Night." Kari gave Tk a peck on the cheek. Then, she walked inside.

Tk walked back to the elevator. He was on cloud nine right now. He was so caught up, he almost walked into somebody else walking by. "Watch it, kid!"

Tk didn't even hear the passerby. He simply ignored him and quietly walked into the elevator. Tk leaned up against the wall of the elevator. His every thought was of Kari. He walked back home and found his mother was still awake.

"Oh, Tk, you're home. Did you enjoy your date with Kari?"

Tk slowly walked over and sat down next to his mom. "This has to be the best night of my whole life..."

Mrs. Takaishi laughed. "Good. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself."

"I never knew what true love was until I met her... I love that woman so much."

"Aw... my little boy is all grown up now. Seems like yesterday, I was changing your diapers."

Tk was far too tired from his night out with Kari to blush like he normally might have. "She is so wonderful." Tk then looked at the clock. It was after 11. "Aw, man. I better get to bed."

"'Kay. Sleep well.

Tk walked in his room and shut the door. He threw himself onto his bed without even bothering to change into his pajamas. Tk thought about why he and Kari have to be apart so much. They were head over heels for each other. Was all the time apart really necessary? Having thought this over, Tk made a very big, very important decision. _I'm going to ask Kari to marry me..._ Tk thought right before he fell asleep.


	4. Matt's Dark Secrets

Greetings. I hope that you are having a lovely day today. Prepare for a lot of drama this chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

* * *

Matt threw the door to his apartment open. "Matt, you're back," Gabumon said as Matt entered.

"So I am." If it were possible, Matt looked even worse than he had before.

"Matt, what's happening to you? Have you looked at yourself lately?"

"What's there to see? I don't care how I look. I give a damn at all. Now, will you, and everyone else please leave me alone about the way I look?"

Gabumon sighed. "Matt..."

"What?"

"Is there something wrong?"

"Just leave me alone already! My gosh! Why can't people just give me some space!

"Please, Matt, don't push me away. I'm trying to help you."

"Oh yeah? Well, help me by leaving me alone."

Gabumon sighed again. "Okay. If that's the way you want it."

Matt stomped into his bedroom and slammed the door tightly shut. He had been through yet another endless practice session with his band again. Like always, they did the exact same song about 100 times. Matt could understand doing this with a new song, but why do so with a song they had been singing for years now. Matt threw himself onto his bed. He cupped his head in his hands. His mind was racing and wouldn't stop. Some light shined through the window. Matt slowly got up and closed the shades. Matt tried very hard to shut the world out. He wished they all would just leave him alone. What had he ever done to them. Matt lied back down and tired to relax, but it was pointless. _Need... relief..._ Matt thought. He leaned over the side of the bed and reached underneath it. He grabbed the object he had hidden when Tk had come to visit him days ago. _Hello again, old friend. _Matt held the object up and eyed it closely. _You're always right there when I need you.__ Not like my useless friends who just abandon me._ _  
_

_

* * *

_"You got something on your shirt," Ken said.

"I do? Where?" Davis said.

Ken donned a large, evil grin. He kicked the soccer ball right past Davis and scored. "HAHAHA! You fall for that one every time!" He and Davis had been a one-on-one soccer match. They had started a trend of doing so in their free time.

Davis suddenly realized Ken pulled the oldest trick in the book and turned to face him. "You cheater! I can't believe you did that!"

"Oh, spare me that routine, Davis. You pull things like this all the time."

"Yeah, but that doesn't give you the right to do it to me."

"I believe the saying goes, 'don't start none, there won't be none.' You tried to cheat to beat me, and so I did the same to you."

"But that's not fair!"

"Neither is what you did to me. How about we both stop it and call it even?"

"Okay. Guess I had that one comin'."

"If my records of all our games are correct, that makes the score 20-2, in favor of me. If looks like you have some serious catching up to do."

Davis hunched over in defeat. "I'm a terrible soccer player..."

"Cheer up, Davis. You're not terrible. I'm just better than you. That doesn't necessarily mean that you lack the ability to play."

"I wanna be as good as you are some day!"

"As I always say, perfect practice makes permanent. Work hard, and one day, you'll be as good as me. Who knows, maybe even better."

"I hope so. I'm tired of you kickin' my butt all the time."

The two boys started walking off the soccer field they had been playing on. "So, I assume you have heard that Tai and Sora moved in together?" Ken asked Davis.

"Is the sky blue? Of course I heard about that," Davis replied. "Couldn't be happier for the guy. First, he finally gets to be with the girl of his dreams after a loooooong wait, then they move in together. I envy him. He's got it all."

"Still regret that you could not win Kari's heart?"

"I don't seem to recall this conversation being about Kari."

"I-I'm sorry. I should not have-"

"Ken, forget it. It's in the past. She's with Tk. If that's what makes her happy, so be it. That's all I care about."

"You sure have changed."

"How so?"

"If we were having this conversation a few years ago, you would be saying otherwise."

Davis couldn't help but grin a little bit. Ken was right. Davis had finally learned not to always put himself first all the time. He commonly thought of others first. Being dismissed as the leader of the new Digidestined six years ago had taught him valuable lessons. Lessons he would never forget. Davis' life had never been better.

"Yeah. I can't help but laugh now, looking back at how silly I was back then," Davis said. "I'll always be thankful for our adventure 10 years ago-"

"Six years, Davis. It was six years ago, not 10," Ken interrupted.

"Right, what did I say?" Davis asked as he scratched the back of his head.

"I just told you."

"You just told me what?"

"It was six years ago when fought Devimon, not 10."

"Right, what did I say?"

"Oh, forget it."

"Forget what? Wait, what were we talking about? It had something to do with root beer, didn't it?"

Ken just laughed and shook his head. _I take it back. He's still the same old Davis._

_

* * *

_Cody walked through the hallways of his college. He had grown a lot taller since the old days back in the Digital World. He walked outside to go have have a snack. He walked past somebody he thought he recognized. "Joe? That you?" Joe and Cody went to the same college.

Joe was leaning over a table. He didn't respond at first. "Joe? Hello?"

Joe suddenly sat up very quickly. "GONE!" Joe banged the table with his fist. It's all gone... All my dignity's gone. Bye bye, see ya."

Cody gave Joe an inquisitive look. "What's wrong with you?"

"One minute, you're defending the WHOLE Digital World... AND SUDDENLY, you find yourself sucking down Jack with... your little imaginary friend. Heh heh heh..."

Cody looked and saw a beer bottle on the table. He threw it into the trash. "I think you've had enough of that stuff for today. Lets get you out of here, Joe." Cody got Joe up onto his feet and tried to get him back inside.

Joe suddenly broke away from Cody. "Don't you get it!" Joe stumbled around some. "I. Am. DRUNK!"

Cody finally got fed up with Joe's behavior. "Snap out of it, Joe!" Cody drew his arm back and slapped Joe very hard.

Joe held his face where Cody had slapped him as he came to his sinces. "I-I-I-I'm sorry. You're right. I am just a little stressed out, that's all. I can get through this..." Joe walked around a little. "Oh, I'm a failure!"

"Joe! What's gotten into you!"

"Look at me, I've got 20 classes today, and I can't take it all. Well, not literally 20, I have eight, but that's still too much. I'm a failure."

"Joe, chill out. Just drop out of some of your classes."

Joe stood up, and said, "Drop out! Are you daft!"

"Joe, calm down, you're causing a disturbance."

"I need all of my classes if I'm ever going to make it as a doctor."

"Joe, you're taking French class, computer science, and quantum physics. How does that help you with becoming a doctor?"

"Maybe you're right. But, if I learn all that stuff, people will look up to me."

"People will look up to you even more if you become a doctor. You will be saving lives, Joe. Do yourself a favor, and get out of all the needless classes that you are in."

Joe took a deep breath and started to calm down some. "Okay. I'll do that right away. Lets see... I can go from eight classes down to three. Oh, Cody, thank you! You just helped me out so much."

"Glad I could help." Joe walked back inside the building, leaving Cody by himself. "Note to self, don't ever, ever, ever drink."

* * *

"Come on, Sora," Tai said.

"Tai, this is silly," Sora replied.

"Sora, Matt has my coffee maker. He's had it for, like, ever. It's time for him to give it back."

"Well, why don't you just call him instead of going to see him?"

Tai sighed. "You do realize this is Matt that we are talking about, right? If I call him on the phone and ask for it back, he'll say that he's going to bring it, then hold onto it for another six months. I'll call him again, and he will promise to bring it back, and hold onto some more. Rinse, lather, repeat. The only way that I'm ever going to get it back is to go get it from him."

Sora sighed. "Oh, well. At least this gets me out of the house."

Tai and Sora walked around inside Matt's apartment complex trying to find his apartment. "Didn't we already walk past this place?" Sora asked.

"Don't ask me hard questions."

"Tai, I thought you knew how to get to his place."

"I do."

"Then why haven't we found it yet?"

"Again, don't ask me hard questions."

Sora rolled her eyes. "At this rate, we'll be here all day."

"Aha! Here it is." Tai walked up to the door and knocked. "At last, I will have my coffee maker back! I can't wait to go home and use it again." As Tai was knocking, the door slowly creaked open.

"Did you open the door?" Sora asked.

"No, it just opened by itself." Tai opened the door all the way and walked inside.

"Tai, we can't just barge in!" Sora followed Tai inside.

"Matt! Where are ya! I want my coffee maker back!"

"Tai. You can't just walk into people's houses like this!"

"Damn, it's dark in here."

"Tai, are you listening to me?"

"Huh? You say something?"

Sora put her hand over her forehead. "Somebody there?" Gabumon said as he walked into the room.

"Is that Gabumon?" Tai asked.

Gabumon turned on the lights. "Tai! Sora! Boy am I glad to see you guys."

Tai looked over at the couch. "Whoa! Matt!"

Sora looked as well. "Oh my goodness! Is he okay?"

"I don't know," Gabumon replied. "He's been like this for a while now."

"What happened?" Tai asked Gabumon.

"He came home from practicing with his band, went inside his room and grabbed something. Then, He came out, turned the lights off and sat down on the couch. He's been like this ever since."

"Is he still breathing?" Sora asked.

"Joe taught me how to check for pulse," Tai said. "Let me see if he's okay." Tai picked Matt's arm up to check for a pulse, causing something to fall out of his hand.

Sora bent over to look at the object. "What's this?" She reached to pick it up.

Tai took a look and grabbed Sora's hand. "Don't touch that thing!"

"Why not?"

"That thing is an ice pipe!" Sora gasped. "Don't touch it, or you'll get your finger prints on it."

"You mean to tell me Matt has been an illegal drug!" Sora asked.

"Looks that way."

"Well worry about that later," Gabumon said.

"Is Matt still alive?"

Tai pressed down on Matt's wrist. "Yeah, he's still alive."

"What could bring him to use this crap?" Sora asked.

"He's a rock star. He thinks that makes it okay," Tai answered.

"It can't be that simple," Gabumon said. "I know Matt. He wouldn't do this for the hell of it. There has to be another reason."

Tai stood up. He stomped his foot down on top of the pipe and destroyed it. "He sure won't be using that thing anymore."

"Tai, we have to help him some how," Sora said.

Tai was about to say something, but stopped when he heard Matt groaning. "I think he's waking up."

Matt slowly opened his eyes. He looked around and saw Tai, Sora, and Gabumon standing around him. "Whoa! What are you guys all doing here!"

"What's the matter, Matt? Afraid that we might discover your little secret?" Tai said.

"What?"

"Don't act innocent. We found the ice pipe in your hand."

"I-I... I don't know what you're talking about."

"Take a look at the floor, Matt. I smashed the pipe you were using."

Matt looked to where Tai was pointing. He saw the remains of his ice pipe. He cupped held his head in his hands, then quickly got up. "How dare you come into my house and accuse me of drug abuse!"

"Matt, stop denying it," Sora said. "Admit it, you have a problem."

"Not you too, Sora."

"Matt, how could you do something so low down!" Gabumon exclaimed. "I thought you knew better than that."

Matt started pacing. "Okay! I've been using ice!"

"Why, Matt?" Tai said Why would you risk ruining your life? Is it because you're a rock star? You think that makes it okay?"

"Well, maybe I would have turned to it if you hadn't abandoned me!"

"Abandoned you?"

"All I ever do is go practice with the band, then I come home and sit alone all day. You never call me, or even come to visit me."

"Quit trying to turn this on me!"

"Matt, we never abandoned you," Sora said. "You're our friend. How could you think we would ever do something like that?"

"You have no idea what it's like, sitting here alone every minute of every day."

"You're not alone, Matt," Gabumon said. "You have me."

"Some good you are!"

Gabumon was deeply hurt by Matt's words. "Watch your tongue, Matt!" Tai said. "Take another shot at Gabumon again, and I'll make sure you won't like it!"

"Tai, don't say things like that," Sora said.

"So, I'm supposed to let him hurt his partner's feelings?"

"Tai, he needs help. We can't help him by threatening him."

Tai sighed. "Yeah, I guess."

"Practice the same song 100 times, come home and be alone," Matt said. "Boy, what a rich life I live."

"That's why you were using drugs? You were trying to use them to replace your friends?" Sora asked Matt.

"...Yes... Ever since you and I broke up, Sora, I haven't been able to pick up another girl."

"You're shitin' me!" Tai said.

"It's true. This is the first time I've interacted with somebody other than my band mates in several days."

"Oh, Matt, I'm so sorry," Sora said.

"Why did you do this to yourself? You could have called us or something," said Tai.

"I guess I should have. But, I have to put all my time into the band."

"That's an easy one. Take time off from the band."

"Don't you get it, Tai! My band is how I make my living! I take time off, I'm broke."

"I'm not saying you have to take off six months. Just a day or two."

"Tai is right," said Sora. "You need to make some time for yourself."

Matt took a deep breath. "But, the drugs will call my for me."

"Then we'll help you. You don't have to be alone anymore."

"Thanks, Tai. Sora. You guys are a Godsend."

"Come on, Matt. Lets go get you some help."

Matt nodded and walked outside. "Yeah! Matt's finally going to go back to normal again!" Gabumon cheered.

Sora and Gabumon walked out as well. Tai was about to follow them out, but stopped. He looked and saw his coffee maker. He donned a big grin. He walked over and unplugged it and carried it outside. _Yes!_ Tai thought.

"Tai? Are you coming?" Sora called from the hallway.

"Yeah, wait up!"


	5. The Question

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

* * *

"He was doing what!" Tk shouted into his cell phone. Sora had just called him and brought him up to speed about Matt. "I don't believe it. How could he sink so low?"

_'It's been rough going for him lately,'_ Sora said.

Tk sighed. "That's no excuse. I'm going to have to talk with him next time I see him."

_'Just be easy on him. We have to be supportive if he's going to beat this.'_

"Okay. Talk to you later." With that, Tk closed his cell phone and put it back in his pocket. He shook his head as he thought about Matt using drugs. _I can't believe he would do something so stupid! He knows better than that. To think, I looked up to him._

For years, Tk had put Matt up on a pedestal. Tk thought that Matt was the coolest person that there ever was. When things were scary during the first adventure in the Digital World, Matt was always there to protect him. When Tk needed support when he and the new Digidestined were on their adventure in the Digital world, Matt was there to help him out. Tk thought back to six years ago when they were going through the ordeal with Devimon. It was after the new Digidestined had removed Davis as the leader and elected Tk to take his place.

* * *

"_Matt, did Tai tell you the news...?" Tk spoke into his cell phone. "Remember when Davis led us to that cliff edge?_ _The Digidestined mutually decided to dismiss him as the leader of our group."_

_'What!'_

"_Yeah. They said that they were tired of having to deal with an idiot as a leader. I can kind of understand. That wasn't the first time he almost got us killed."_

_'Who did they choose to replace him?'_

"_Yours truly."_

_There was silence on the other side of the line for a moment. 'That's... that's great news. I'm proud of you, little bro.'_

_Tk sighed. "You know what this means, right?"_

_'You guys will be a little safer?"_

"_No. We're going to fall apart! Davis will act like he's going to die, and it's going to affect us as a whole. My team will fall into disarray, and everything will go to hell. All because I opened my big, fat mouth back in the forest. I should have never said a word. Then, maybe, we wouldn't be in this situation. ...It's all my fault."_

_'You stop talking like that right now!' Matt shouted. 'What happened with Davis is unfortunate. But you have to keep moving. You and Davis will reconcile eventually. You are the leader of the new Digidestined. You can't sit there and cry. You have a lot of responsibility now. Now, quit sobbing in a corner and act like a man!'_

"_But-"_

_'No buts, Tk. I know you can do this. You just have to believe in yourself.'_

_Tk cheered up a little. "...Thanks, Matt. You have no idea what that means to me."_

_

* * *

_Tk walked along as he remembered those times. _What happened to that guy? He was a real man. You knew he would do the right thing._ Tk ran his hand through his hair as he walked along. _At least we found out before it was too late._ Tk put those thoughts aside. He was about to go through with 'it.' He was on his way to Kari's house to go propose to her. _Just think, my darling and I, married..._

Tk rode the elevator up to Kari's floor. He walked down the open air concourse and up to the door. He knocked and eagerly awaited somebody to answer it. The door slowly opened, revealing Mrs. Kamiya. "Good day, Mrs. Kamiya. Is Kari home?"

"No, I am afraid not. She got called in to work unexpectedly. Why, is something wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong. I just wanted to talk to her."

"Oh. Well, you could go see her at work."

"Okay. I'll do just that. Thank you, Mrs. Kamiya." With that, Tk turned and left. He exited the apartment complex and headed for where Kari worked. _Of course. Wouldn't you know she would be working today. Oh well._ Tk walked a little faster than he normally did. He couldn't wait to ask her. Tk knew there was the chance that Kari would say 'no', but he didn't think she would. As madly in love as they were right now, Tk was almost sure that she would say 'yes.'

Tk took a short cut through an ally way. He and Kari had discovered this short cut some time ago. It saved several minutes to go this way. Tk was so caught up in thinking about how he was going to ask Kari that he didn't notice somebody being assaulted in the ally way.

"Hand over all your cash!" said one of two thugs. He was quite tall and muscular and was wearing a mask.

"Do what he says, bitch!" said the other thug. He was smaller than the other man.

"Go to hell, you ass holes!" said the victim.

Tk thought he recognized that voice. He finally snapped out of his day dreams of Kari and saw the two thugs attacking the civilian. "Kari?"

The two thugs looked up. "Damn, a witness," said the shorter man.

"Not for very long," said the taller man.

"Tk! HELP!" Kari screamed.

"You fucktards had better get the hell away from her!" Tk threatened.

The tall thug slowly walked up to Tk. "What's a little punk like you gonna do?"

Tk kicked the thug in the crotch as hard as he could. The thug hunched over and held himself where Tk had kicked him. "This!" Tk said as he hit the thug in the face with a right cross. The thug stumbled over and ran into one of the wall surrounding them. Tk ripped the mask off the thug's head, then grabbed him by his hair and slammed his face into the wall, knocking him out cold. The thug landed on the ground with a loud thud.

"Holy hell!" the other thug shouted. He turned tail and took off running.

"Yeah, dumbshit! You had better run! Show your face around me ever again, and you won't have a face anymore!"

Kari hastily ran to Tk. He wrapped his arms around her. "Oh God, Tk... I thought they were gonna kill me!" Kari was trembling so much, it blurred her vision. Her breathing was fast and erratic.

"It's okay. I won't let those bastards hurt you." Tk held Kari very close to him. "You're not hurt are you?"

Kari was so scared, she couldn't answer at first. Her heart was about to beat out of her chest. "I think I'm okay..."

The two of them stood there in each others embrace for a moment. "What's going on here?" a police officer asked as he walked into the ally way.

"This guy and one of his friends tried to rob my girlfriend here," Tk answered.

"I see," said the officer. He radioed in a report, then handcuffed the thug. "Did you take him yourself?"

"Yeah. I beat that bastard so bad, I scared his friend off."

"Tk, can we please leave?" Kari asked.

"Will there be anything else, officer?"

"No. You can go on about your business." Tk nodded. He and Kari quickly left the ally way.

"Am I glad you showed up," Kari told Tk.

"Yeah. I am, too."

"What were you in that place anyway?"

"I went to your house to go see you. Your mom said that you got called into work, so I took that short cut to go see you."

"Wow, you have good timing," Kari said, still breathing a little hard.

"Well, I was coming to ask you something."

"Really? What?"

"Uh... Now's not the time."

"Is it something important?"

"...You could say that."

"Well then, what is it?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it."

Kari huffed at Tk. "Come on, Tk. What is it?"

Tk sighed. "Come with me." Tk walked Kari to the park.

"Why did you bring me here?" Kari asked.

Tk turned to face her. "Kari, if I asked you to marry me right now, what would you say?"

Kari looked at Tk, an inquisitive look on her face. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Tk dropped to his knees. He reached into his pocket and retrieved a small box from out of it. He took Kari's hand in his. "Will you marry me?" Kari gasped. She pulled her hand away from Tk. She held her hands over her mouth. "I know this isn't the right time, with what you just went through, but I can't stand another moment without you. We're so in love, and yet, we're apart a lot of time. I want us to be together forever. It drives me crazy being away from you so much of the time."

Kari just stood there for a moment, speechless. "I-I... Why ask this now, after I almost got robbed?"

"I didn't know that was going to happen. I'm Sorry."

"Well... I... uh..."

"Please, Kari. I love you with all my heart."

"I... how? How can we get married? We can't afford a wedding."

"I don't care. All that matters to me is you."

Kari wasn't sure her she felt right now. Her emotions were conflicting with each other. Her mind was racing. "Tk... I..."

"No? Okay..."

"I... will."

Tk shot his head up to look at Kari. "You will!"

"Yes..." Kari started to cry. "I will marry you."

Tk jumped off the ground and threw his arms around Kari. The two of them shared a very passionate kiss. "I love you."

Kari rested her head on Tk's chest. "I love you too." She couldn't believe it. The love of her life had just asked her to marry him. They were going to be together for the rest of time. "I can't believe this is happening."

"Neither can I. This is so awesome!"


	6. The End of the Beginning

Sorry for the slight delay in updating. I hope everybody had a wonderful fourth of July. Now, what do you say we get back into the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

* * *

Somewhere in the Digital World, a Dorumon was running as fast as he could. He was breathing very hard and was very tired. But he couldn't stop. Not now. There was too much riding on his shoulders. "Where is it!" he said in frustration. "I have to find him. Where is his house!" The Dorumon continued to run around. He felt scared, lost, and alone. "I can't find him!" The Dorumon slowly stopped running. He looked around. There was no sight of his objective anywhere. Nothing but trees and a small lake. Dorumon's legs gave out from under him, and he fell down next to the lake. "I'll never find him..." Dorumon relaxed for a moment in the shade. He leaned over the lake to get a much-needed drink of water. Suddenly, the waters magically parted. Dorumon jumped up and get into a defensive stance. He thought an enemy might come up out of the lake and attack him. A few seconds past, and nothing had emerged from the lake. Suddenly, a tall figure wearing white clothes walked up out of the ally way the waters created. "Yes! I found him! I finally found Gennai!"

Gennai looked up at the Dorumon as he walked up the steps that went down to his house under the lake. "Hello there."

Dorumon ran up to Gennai. "I thought I never would find you!"

"Whoa, calm down. What's wrong?"

"We have big problems! We need your help!"

Gennai put his hands on the Dourmon's shoulders and said, "Slow down. Now, tell me what has you in such a panic."

* * *

Tai ran up and hugged Kari. "I can't believe my little sister is going to get married!" Kari and Tk had gone to Tai and Sora's house to tell them the big news. "I must have taught you well. You got yourself quite a catch there."

Kari rolled her eyes. "I knew you were going to say something like that."

"I'm so happy for you both!" Sora said. "It's always been my dream to get _married_." Sora put extra emphasis on the word 'married.'

"Boy, mom is gonna freak when she finds out about this," Tai said, completely oblivious to Sora's hint.

"I can just imagine all the hell I'm going to go through with my mom," Tk said. He thought about all the stupid things Mrs. Takaishi would say and do when they told her the big news.

"Hey, if I can deal with my mom giving me hell about having Sora move in with me, you can stand your mom being all... momish over you getting married," said Tai.

"Hey, Sora," Kari said. "Can you help me with all the arrangements?"

"Sure. We'll get Mimi and Yolei to help us, too. We'll plan the greatest wedding ever!"

"I _am_ going to be the best man, right?" Tai asked Tk.

"I was going to have Matt be the best man, but I don't think I'm going to have him do it since I found out about his problem."

"So, why don't you replace him with me?"

"Well... Sure!"

Tai pumped his fist. "Awesome!"

Sora looked at Kari. "See what I have to deal with on a daily basis?"

Kari laughed. "Yeah. They broke the mold when they made Tai."

"You think the Digimon can be in the wedding?" Tk asked.

"I don't really see any reason why not," Tai answered. "Some people might be a little spooked by them, but they can get over it."

"I hope they get to be in it," Kari said. "I can't imagine having my wedding without Gatomon being there."

"Come on, lets go out and celebrate," Tai said. "Everything's on me."

"Count me in!" Tk said.

The four of them left and went to go celebrate Tk and Kari's big announcement.

* * *

Izzy sat at his desk, typing away on his computer as he usually did. _I'm so bored right now. I wish something would happen._ He thought. He continued to type away. Suddenly, a message appeared in his email box. _I don't recognize the name. Probably just spam._ Izzy was about to delete the message, but curiosity got the better of him and he opened it. "What!" Izzy flew up out of his chair, making it roll backwards into the wall. "I better call the others." Izzy got picked his cell phone up and dialed Tai. "Come on, Tai. You never answer when it's important." Izzy finally got Tai's voice mail. "Of course. How typical." Izzy decided to call Sora next.

_'Hello?'_ Sora's voice came over the phone.

"Sora, we have a problem."

* * *

Izzy gathered the Digidestined at his house. "Where is everybody." Izzy looked around and noticed that only Tai, Sora, Tk, Kari, Matt, and Yolei, and all their digimon partners had showed up.. "I need all the Digidestined here."

"This is everybody," Tai answered. "This isn't like old times. We have lives now. We can't all be right there when something comes up like we used to be able to."

Izzy sighed and shook his head. "Isn't that wonderful."

"Okay, Izzy, I was in the middle of something," Yolei said. "Whatever you called us all her for had better be important."

"Yes, it is very unwise to interrupt her while she is painting her fingernails," Hawkmon said. Yolei glared at Hawkmon for saying that.

"Anyway," Agumon said. "Back to what you were telling us."

"Gennai sent me an email," Izzy said.

"And...?" Tk said.

"Something bad is going down in the Digital World."

"Another one of the bad guys we already beat once is back for more?" Gabumon asked.

"No. This is more serious than that. A _lot_ more serious."

"Well, are you going to sit there and tell us how bad it is, or are you going to tell us what's going on?" Tai said.

"Okay, okay! Keep you're shirt on. Gennai said a new evil has surfaced in the Digital World."

"Well, who is the new bad guy?" Matt asked.

"I don't know yet. Gennai didn't tell me."

"What!" Tai said. "If he didn't tell you, then why did you call us here?"

"Gennai said to come to his house in the Digital World and he would give us a briefing."

"Count on Gennai to pull something like this," Sora said, shaking her head.

"Well, lets go on ahead and go to the Digital World and find out what's going on," Tai said. "The sooner, the better."

"Okay, but somebody with a D-3 has to open the Digiport," Izzy said.

"I'll take care of that," Yolei said. She walked up to Izzy's computer and held her D-3 up to the screen. "Digiport open!"

"Here we go again..." Matt said.

"Getting away for a while will do you some good, Matt," Sora said.

"What's wrong with him?" Izzy asked.

"I'll tell you later," Tai told Izzy. "First, we take care of our business in the Digital World."

The seven of them held their Digivices up to the computer screen and were sucked into it.

* * *

The Digidestined landed and set off for Gennai's house. "Gennai had some nerve not to tell us what was wrong," Yolei said.

"You must not know the man very well," Tai told Yolei. "This is nothing compared to the crap he has pulled on us in the past."

"Yeah. You're not lying," Sora said.

"There was that time when the original Digidestined were in the Digital World for the first time," Izzy said. "He told the original seven that there was an eighth child. We asked him who it was. Guess what he said."

"What?" Yolei asked.

"He said he forgot the name of the child," Tai answered.

"Oh, that would make me _so_ mad!"

"Of course, we ended up finding out that the eighth child was Kari," Tk said. "We bent over backwards to try and find her, and she was right under our nose the whole time."

"Ah, the good ole days..." Tai said, thinking of the adventures of the original Digidestined.

The team finally reached the lake that concealed Gennai's house. "Gennai! Open up!" Agumon yelled at the lake. Nothing happened at first.

"Wait..." Tai said. "Did anybody tell him we were coming?"

Izzy slapped himself on the forehead. "I knew I forgot something."

"Great. Now how are we supposed to get down there?" Yolei asked.

"Don't panic, we'll find a way," Hawkmon reassured his partner.

"We can't stay here all day," Kari said. "I have to start making plans for my wedding."

"What wedding?" Matt asked.

"Kari and I are getting married!" Tk said cheerfully.

"Why am I just now finding out about this?" Izzy said.

"Wow!" Tentomon said. "I can't believe it. Seems like yesterday, you two were just little kids."

"Good job, little bro," Matt told Tk. "I'm proud of you."

"Oh, that really means a lot to me," Tk said. He turned away from Matt and refused to look at him.

"What's eating you?" Izzy asked Tk.

"I don't guess anybody told you, but Matt got himself hooked on drugs."

"Tk!" Matt said.

"There were going to find out anyway, Matt. It may as well be now."

"You didn't tell me that," Kari said to Tk.

"I was going to tell you later."

"Wow. All the secrets are coming out today," Yolei said.

"Wow, Matt," Izzy said. "I have never been so disappointed in you. I thought you knew better than that."

"But I-" Matt started to say.

"He thinks he can do it just because he's a rock star!" Tk said.

"That's enough!" Tai said. "Tk, that was completely uncalled for. I'm disappointed in you."

"What did I do?"

"_Never_ say or do something that can hurt a comrade's morale. You of all people should know that." Tai was going to say more, but before he could, the waters of the lake split. "You and I are going to have a talk later, Tk."

Gennai suddenly appeared on the steps that went down into the lake. "I thought I heard somebody up here."

"There he is," Yolei said.

"Gennai, what's going on?" Izzy asked.

"Come inside and I will tell you all." The Digidestined did as they were told and followed Gennai inside his house. "Before I tell you what's going on, where are the rest of you?"

"Real World," Izzy answered. "The rest were tied up with other things and weren't able to come."

"This is all you get for right now," Sora added.

"I see..." Gennai said. "As for what's going on, a new evil has arisen."

"Yeah. That's what your email said," Tai said.

"Who is it?" Sora asked. "One of our fomer foes again?"

"No. This is completely different." Gennai used his computer to project an image up onto one of the walls. "This is it." Gennai pointed to the digimon in the picture.

"T-that's..." Tentomon said when he saw the picture of the digimon.

"Yes. Yes, it is."

"Who is that, Tentomon?" Izzy asked.

"It's Zhuqiaomon!" Tentomon answered. "He's one of the four legendary digimon who guard the Digital World."

"Wait, wait, wait," Tai said. "That guy is a guardian of the Digital World?"

"Correct," Gennai said.

"Wouldn't that make him a good guy?"

"He was on the side of good, yes. But he has apparently turned evil."

"How sad..." Agumon said. "I always looked up to him."

"What's he doing that's so evil?" Patamon asked.

"You name it, he's done it," said Dorumon, entering the room.

"Who are you?" Yolei asked.

"My name is Dorumon. I come from the part of the Digital World that Zhuqiaomon guards. I came here to tell Gennai of all the terrible things Zhuqiaomon has done."

"Exactly what has he done?" Tai asked.

"...Zhuqiaomon has forced all the digimon in the area he guards to become his slaves. If any digimon refuses, then they get destroyed."

"He kills them, just like that?" Sora asked.

"Yes. Not only does he kill them, he makes them suffer for hours before they finally dies."

"Monster..." Kari said silently.

"Why would he just suddenly start doing this?" Tai asked. "He's supposed to be a guardian. He has an _example_ to set." Tai looked at Tk when he said 'example.'

"He's always been full of anger," Dorumon answered. "I guess all of his anger has overtaken him."

"Sounds awful," Sora said.

"It is. I still remember what he did before I left.

* * *

_There was a Tyranomon that Zhuqiaomon was ordering around. Tyranomon didn't do exactly what Zhuqiaomon said to. He attacked that poor, defenseless digimon..._

"_You useless fool!" Zhuqiaomon shouted. "You can't do anything right!"_

_I could see the anger welling up inside of Tyranomon. He finally had enough._

"_Maybe if you were such a tyrant!" he spat at Zhuqiaomon. "I'm done letting you step on me!"_

_Zhuqiaomon attacked Tyranomon again. I couldn't bear to watch. Zhuqiaomon called his lapdog servants over. He told them to take Tyranomon and torture him. They drug that poor Tyranomon away screaming. Zhuqiaomon didn't notice that I had been watching. I left as quietly as I could._

_

* * *

_

"That's when I ran away as fast as I could," Dorumon said. "I came and found Gennai. I knew he would be able to help."

"How could Zhuqiaomon do such a thing!" Gatomon asked.

"It doesn't matter," Tai said. "We have to go find him and stop this."

"Zhuqiaomon is incredibly strong," Gennai said. "He will not be easy to defeat."

"You forget, we have our crests again," Izzy said.

"Still, Zhuqiaomon is not to be underestimated."

"Where can we find him?" Tai asked.

"I'll set the Digiport in my computer to transport you near his fortress. But be careful. You will be in his domain. I won't be able to help you once you're in there. You will be completely on your own. You are the only one's who can stop him. If you get into trouble, get out of there right then and there. We can't afford to lose any of you."

"We'll be careful," Tai said. "Wish us luck." The Digidestined held their Digivices up to the screen of Gennai's computer and were transported away to go face Zhuqiaomon.


	7. Such Anger

Hello again. Just in case you don't know, 'Zhuqiaomon' is pronounced like 'zoo-chow-mon'. Get ready, because that name appears a lot in this chapter. I briefly considered using the title of this chapter as the title of the whole story. And now, lets get back into the action.

Disclaimer: Digimon. I don't own it.

* * *

The Digidestined landed in a pile after exiting the Digiport as usual. After much complaining, they finally got up and got their bearings. "Lets go through that one at a time from now on," Kari said. "That ought to take care of all the pile up's."

"No bellyaching!" Tai said. He looked around for a moment. Gennai had sent them to some deep forest. "I don't think that we have ever been here before. Izzy, any idea where are we?"

Izzy pulled his laptop out. "Hold on." He opened the laptop and tried to start it. "Uh oh..."

"Something wrong, Izzy?" Tentomon asked.

"It appears that all the jostling from our rough landing has messed my laptop up a little bit."

"Maybe Kari has a point with that one at a time thing," Yolei said.

"Is that working at all?" Tai asked Izzy.

"It's down for the time being. I need to go into system recovery mode to fix it. We'll have to manage without it until later."

Tai heaved a heavy sigh. "Can't ever be easy, can it?"

"Don't get discouraged, Tai," Agumon reassured his partner.

"I'm not. Don't worry, I know we'll get through this." Tai walked to the front of the group. "Listen up, ladies and gentlemen; Zhuqiaomon is an important figure here in the Digital World." Tai started to pace as he talked. "The Digital World could fall out of balance without him. We need to convince him to stop doing all these bad things. Killing him has to be a last resort. Got it?" The Digidestined all nodded their heads in response. "Okay. Now, lets go find his fortress and put an end to all of this."

The team started moving, Tai and Agumon at the front of the group. "Good thing we have our crests back," Sora said. "It sure isn't going to be easy to stop this guy."

"Hopefully, he will listen to reason," Gabumon said.

"I wouldn't count on it," Tk said. "I know his type. As soon as we even suggest that he stop mistreating the digimon here, he'll start attacking us."

"Then we'll just have to show him who's boss, won't we?" Tentomon said.

"What I wouldn't give to able to do this without violence," Kari said.

"You and me both, sis," Tai said. "Who knows? Maybe this is all just a big misunderstanding, and we won't have to fight."

The group walked on in silence for a moment. The forest they were in was dark and kind of scary. A feeling of tension feel upon the Digidestined. "Think he has any henchmen?" Yolei said, breaking the nervous silence.

"I wouldn't doubt it," Izzy answered. "Zhuqiaomon has enslaved most of the digimon here. I'm sure he's made some of them into guards and henchmen."

"Great, we'll have to kill some of them to get to Zhuqiaomon!" Hawkmon said.

"Not necessarily," Tk said. "Some of his guards might not be completely loyal to Zhuqiaomon after all the abuse they have taken from him."

"Good point, Tk," Patamon said. "We might not have to fight after all."

The Digidestined continued to walk. Finally they exited the large forest. "Whoa!" Matt said.

"Is that?" Gatomon said.

"It's gotta be," Tai said. "Zhuqiaomon's fortress."

Zhuqiaomon's fortress was a large castle. It was built out of black bricks. There were several towers at the top that went high up into the sky. The whole place looked eerie, like it was haunted or something. A wall about 20 feet tall surrounded the castle.

"This guy has got some ego problems," said Yolei.

"As the saying goes, he built himself a pyramid, and put himself up at the top," Izzy said.

"How do we get inside that place?" Biyomon said. "That wall is huge!"

"Blow up the wall?" Patamon asked.

"No, none of that," Tai answered. "We have to act diplomatic here. Force has to be a last resort, remember?"

"Until the shooting starts," Izzy said.

"Hopefully, there won't be any of that," Sora said.

"Well, what now?" Matt asked. "There's this big wall keeping us from getting inside to Zhuqiaomon. We can't blow the thing up. If we Digivolve and try to climb or fly over, they might take it as a threat."

"I'm sure there's a door or a gate somewhere on this thing," Tentomon said.

"So, there's a way through this wall," Yolei said. "Suppose it's being guarded. What do we do then? We won't be able to just walk in."

"We'll figure it out as we go," Tai said. "Lets start looking for some way to get around this thing. We're not gonna accomplish anything standing here having a debate about what to do next."

The Digidestined started walking around the wall looking for some kind of way through. Needless to say, the wall stretched on for quite a long way. "How much further do we have to walk?" Yolei asked. "I'm starting to get tired."

"I'm getting tired, too," Gatomon said.

"Sorry, but we can't take a break right now," Tai said.

"Come on, Tai," Tk said. "We've been walking almost non stop since we left Gennai's house. How are we going to stop Zhuqiaomon if were about to collapse from fatigue?"

"We're too close to stop right now. What if we sat down and took a break, then Zhuqiaomon's minions came and attacked us?"

"He has a point," Tentomon said.

"If you say so..." Tk mumbled.

The Digidestined kept on walking around the wall in search for a way to get through it. Suddenly, Gatomon started walking slower and fell behind the group. "Gatomon?" Kari said.

"Huh...?" Gatomon quietly said.

"Tai, we really need to stop for a minute."

"What for?" Tai demanded.

Kari pointed to Gatomon. "Look for yourself."

Tai looked at Gatomon for second. "She'll be fine. We need to keep moving."

"So you're going to do her the way you did me that time during our first adventure?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You don't remember? When I collapsed when we were still fighting the Dark Masters?"

"Why would I want to remember that? That was one of the worst times in my life. And what does that have to do with anything?"

"Do you want that to happen again with Gatomon?"

Tai looked at Gatomon again. She looked really bad. "Okay, you win. Everybody, take five." The Digidestined happily went and found a place to sit down and rest. "Here's hoping we don't get attacked while we're sitting here," Tai said to himself.

"Thanks for letting us rest, Tai," Yolei said. "My legs were starting to get real sore."

"Yeah, thanks," Izzy added. "I was starting to give out, too."

"Yeah, don't mention it," Tai responded.

The Digidestined sat there for a few minutes. They shared conversations with one another as they rested. "Tk," Tai said.

"Yeah?"

"Come with me. I need to talk to you."

Tk nervously looked at Kari before he got up and walked with Tai. The two of them walked well out of earshot of the rest of the team. "What's up, Tai?" Tk asked.

"It's about earlier. When you got mad at Matt."

"What's the problem?"

"Your attitude, that's what."

Tk felt both hurt and angry at the same time. "What!"

"Tk, you are the leader of the second team. I know you aren't happy about Matt getting hooked on drugs, but you can't go and do things like you did before."

Tk put his hands on his hips. "And just why not?"

Tai put his hands behind his back. "For one thing, as leader of the second team, you have a reputation to keep up."

Tk's hands formed into fists. "You think I don't know that?" he said through gritted teeth.

"And second, I was mad at Matt, too. It made me insanely angry to find out what he had been doing. But putting him down isn't the way to help him beat this. You have to be there for him and support him. Otherwise, he's doomed to stay addicted to the stuff."

"Okay, put yourself in my position. What would you do?"

"This isn't about me, Tk."

"So I should feel good about this!"

"I didn't say that."

"I thought you were my friend, Tai."

"I am. That's why I'm telling you this."

"You're acting like I'm a bad guy or something!"

"Calm down, Tk."

"Don't tell me what to do!"

Tai got very angry at the way Tk was acting. He grabbed him by the shirt. "Mess with me, and I'll send you home and never let you come back into the Digital World, and it will be the last you _ever_ see of Kari!"

"You can't do that!"

"You wanna bet? I can have Gennai set all the Digiports so that they won't let you in. And when I tell Kari about what a jerk you're acting like right now, she won't ever want to see you again."

"Why are you doing this?"

Tai let go of Tk. "Why are _you_ doing this?"

"My brother is on drugs! I held him in high regard, and then he let me down. You have no idea how I feel right now."

"No, I don't know how you feel right now. But your brother needs you. This is his most desperate hour. He needs to know he has friends. People who love him."

"But-"

"But what?"

"He let me down..."

"He let me down, too. I trusted him, and he went and attacked me when we were fighting the Dark Masters. But we worked it out. If he and I can work things out between each other, why can't you two do the same?"

Tk stood in thought for a moment. "I... guess you are right. I'm sorry I shouted at you."

Tai scratched the back of his head. "Yeah... I'm sorry I grabbed you by your shirt and threatened you."

Tk chuckled a little. "I don't think I have ever seen you get so mad before. Not even when Ken tried to make Agumon into his servant when Ken was still trying to be the Digimon Emperor."

"Did I get that hot? Man..."

"So, are we good now?"

"Yeah, I guess. Just don't tell anybody about what happened here. You might see me that angry again if you do."

Tk held his hands in front of himself. "Yes sir!"

The two of them shared a laugh. "Come on, lets get back to the rest of the gang. We got things we need to do."

Tk nodded, and the two of them made their way back to where the rest of the team was resting. "There they are," Izzy said.

"What was all that about?" Sora asked.

"Nothing. Just guy talk," Tai answered. "Okay, is everybody ready to get moving again?"

"Yeah, we're ready," Kari said.

"Alright. Lets get back to work."

Sora gave Tai 'the look'.

'Listen, I'll bring you up to speed later. Right now, lets focus on the matter at hand,' Tai whispered in Sora's ear. She nodded in approval.

The team got up and started looking for a way to get inside Zhuqiaomon's castle. Eventually, they came to a gap in the wall. It was being guarded by two Gaurdromon. "Halt! Who goes there?" The Guardromon to the left of the wall opening said.

Tai and Agumon stepped forward. "We're the Digidestined," Tai said.

"What business do you have here? This is the fortress of the great Zhuqiaomon. Only important figures are allowed on this land."

"Told you he had ego problems," Yolei said.

"We need to speak to your master," Tai told the two Guardromon.

The Guardromon to the left of the opening in the wall looked at Tai. His look was stern and unchanging. "Zhuqiaomon does not wish to be disturbed by you low lives."

"Who are you calling low lives!" Biyomon exclaimed.

"Biyomon!" Sora said.

"Yeah, who are you to decide that!" Yolei said. "You guys are the only low lives here, serving that monster, Zhuqiaomon."

"Hush!" Tai ordered. He then turned to face the Guardromon "I demand that you let us speak to Zhuqiaomon!"

"I ask again, what business do you simpletons have to speak to our lord?" The voices of the two Guardromon were icy and intimidating.

Tai felt scared, but refused to show it. He stood his ground. "Maybe you didn't hear me, but I said **we are the Digidestined.** Let us inside now, or we'll go get the other guardians of the Digital World, and I'm sure that _they_ will let us inside."

The Guardromon looked at each other for a second. They started using their built-in communicators to talk with each other.

"_What do you think?" _said the Guardromon on the right.

"_We should turn them away,"_ said the Guardromon on the left.

"_I don't know. They're humans with digimon. What if they are the Digidestined?"_

"_Our lord, Zhuqiaomon, has said only the other guardians of the Digital World may enter his holy castle. Even if they are the Digidestined, they are not allowed inside."_

The Guardromon looked back at the Digidestined. "No entry is permitted," They said in unison.

"If that's the way you want it," Tai said. He looked at Agumon. "You know what to do, buddy."

Agumon nodded. "Agumon, warp Digivolve to... WarGreymon!" The two Guardromon slowly stepped backwards when they saw WarGreymon.

"_They _are_ the Digidestined!" _the Guardromon on the right said.

"_Perhaps we should allow them to enter..." _said the other Guardromon.

"Ready to let us in now?" Tai said smugly.

"Please, follow us," The Guardromon said in unison. The walked through the opening in the wall, the Digidestined right behind them.

"I thought you said we had to be diplomatic," Izzy said to Tai.

"I think that counts as diplomacy," Tai said, and evil grin on his face. "I didn't order WarGreymon to kill them, did I?"

Izzy shook his head. "How did I know that's what you were going to say?"

Tai chuckled. "Hey, say what you want, it worked, didn't it?"

Izzy shook his head again. The Guardromon led the Digidestined inside the eerie castle. The interior was just as intimidating as the exterior. It was very dark inside. The only source of light were small torches on hanging from the walls. "This place is even creepier than the forest was..." Sora said.

"Don't worry, baby. I'll protect you from the boogie man," Tai said. Sora just rolled her eyes.

The Guardromon led the Digidestined on for what seemed like forever. They wend down corridors, up stair cases, through doors. They even went through a small dungeon with several digimon being held inside prison cells. They cried out the the Digidestined as they walked by, begging for the Digidestined to help them. "Man, this looks bad..." Kari said, barely audible.

"Looks like Dorumon was right," Izzy said. "Zhuqiaomon has been terrible things to these poor digimon."

As they continued to walk through the dungeon, one of the locked up digimon reached his arm through the bars of his cell and grabbed Yolei by her arm. "Please! You have to help me! You don't know what it's like in this place! Please, get me out of here! They've killed all my friends, and they'll kill me soon, too!"

Yolei tried to pull her arm free from the digimon's grasp. The warden of the dungeon, an IceDevimon, walked up and grabbed the digimon's arm. He sunk his claws in. "How many times do I have to tell you! No talking! EVER!"

Yolei stumbled backwards after seeing the IceDevimon torture the digimon that was locked up. "My God... This place is awful..."

"Yolei, are you coming?" Tk called from up ahead.

Yolei snapped back to reality. "Yeah, wait up." She ran quickly to catch up to the rest of the team. She tried her hardest not to think about what these poor digimon were going through. "I should never have come here..."

"Are you going to be okay, Yolei?" Hawkmon asked.

Yolei was on the verge of tears. "Yeah... I-I'll be fine..."

The Guardromon continued to lead the Digidestined around the castle. They had been walking for a long time now. "Are you really leading us to Zhuqiaomon?" Tai questioned the Guardromon.

The Guardromon didn't answer, and simply kept walking.

"I hope they aren't trying to pull a fast one," Tk said.

Izzy pulled his laptop back out to see how the repair process was going. "Good news, Tai,"

"What?"

"My laptop's back up."

"Of course. After we needed it."

"Better late than never, I suppose."

Finally, after much walking, the team came to a pair of large wooden doors. "Through these doors, our lord waits."

"Great. Now open them and let us inside," Tai said. It wasn't a request, but a straight up order.

The Guardromon pushed the gigantic doors open and walked inside. The next room was lit much better than the rest of the castle. In the center of the room, there was a gap in the ceiling allowing sunlight to enter. Standing in the sunlight was Zhuqiaomon. "Lord Zhuqiaomon, the Digidestined are here to speak with you," The Guardromon said in unison.

Suddenly, Zhuqiaomon's eyes shot open and looked at the two Guardromon. "I thought I told not to allow insignificant fools to enter my holy fortress!"

"They have demanded to speak with you, lord."

Zhuqiaomon growled in anger. He shot an energy blast from his eyes and hit the Guardromon, killing them instantly. "How long must I wait to find guards that aren't incompetent!"

The Digidestined looked on in shock. "Did he just vaporize those two digimon!" Kari said.

"Y-yeah..." Gatomon muttered.

"Gennai wasn't lying when he said Zhuqiaomon was incredibly strong..." Izzy said.

"Steady, everybody," Tai said. He and WarGreymon stepped forward to speak to Zhuqiaomon.

"Who are you?" Zhuqiaomon said, anger radiating in every word.

"W-we are the Digidestined," Tai said. "We have come to... discuss what you have been doing..."

Zhuqiaomon's eyes narrowed. "Nobody discusses anything with me..."

Tai gulped. He was about to take the biggest chance of his life. "You may thing you're hot shit, but we took down the Dark Masters, Apocalymon, and stopped Devimon when he had become insanely powerful. You're just another face in the crowd!"

Zhuqiaomon was taken aback by this. "You... Impudent fool! You will die for that!"

"Stop what you're doing to the digimon here, or we will make you," Tai demanded.

"Prepare to die!"

Tai turned and faced the rest of the team. "Eveybody, Digivolve!"

The rest of the Digidestined's digimon digivolved to their highest form. Gabumon Digivolved to MetalGarurumon, Biyomon to Garudamon, Gatomon and Hawkmon to Silphymon, Patamon to MagnaAngemon and Tentomon to MegaKabuterimon. The all faced off with Zhuqiaomon. The Digidestined retreated and took cover. "Now we're done with diplomacy," Tai said to Izzy.

"Wing Blade!"

"Horn Buster!"

"Hand of Fate!"

Garudamon and MegaKabuterimon combined their attacks and fired them at Zhuqiaomon, but he raised some kind of energy field up around him that blocked their attacks. "Uh oh..." Garudamon said.

"Static Force!"

"Terra Force!"

"Ice Wolf Claw!"

Silphymon, WarGreymon, and MetalGarurumon combined their attacks as well, but Zhuqiaomon's field block that attack as well. "You will rue the day you decided to fight me!"

"It's not working!" Izzy said.

"Matt, lets have MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon DNA Digivolve," Tai said. "Maybe he can get through that thing Zhuqiaomon put up."

"Okay," Matt said. He and Tai held their Digivices up.

"MetalGarurumon, DNA Digivolve to..."

"WarGreymon, DNA Digivolve to..."

"Omnimon!"

"An Omnimon... Impressive. I had only heard about them before," Zhuqiaomon said. "Still, you are no match for me.

"Transcendent Sword!" Omnimon thrust his sword into the field Zhuqiaomon put up. It went through, but stopped after a few feet.

"Time to teach you a little respect! Crimson Blaze!" Zhuqiaomon fired the beams out of his eyes again. Omnimon got in front of the other digimon to shield them. The attack hit his arm and burned it badly. "Hurts, doesn't it?" Zhuqiaomon taunted.

"Not really," Omnimon said.

"Look, he let his shield down when he attacked," Izzy pointed out.

"Omnimon, his shield is down!" Tai said. "Attack him, quick!"

"Supreme Cannon!" Omnimon fired his cannon arm at Zhuqiaomon, but he put his field up before the blast got there.

"We have to find some way to get that shield or whatever it is down, or we can't hit him," Izzy said.

"It looks like he has to let it down to attack," Tk said. "If we have the other digimon distract him, maybe Omnimon can hit Zhuqiaomon while his shield is down."

"Good idea," Tai said. "Sliphymon, MegaKabuterimon, and MagnaAngemon, run a distraction so Omnimon can get through that shield.

The digimon did as they were told and drew Zhuqiaomon's attention.

"You are nothing but ants to me. Crimson Blaze!" Zhuqiaomon fired his attack again, but missed all the digimon.

"Now's you chance, Omnimon!" Tai said.

"Supreme Cannon!" Omnimon fired his cannon arm again, and hit Zhuqiaomon before he could raise his field again. Zhuqiaomon stumbled backward after being hit.

"You are persistant, but that will not allow you to defeat me. Desolation Blast!" Zhuqiaomon sent an energy blast in all directions. The Digidestined's digimon were thrown up against the walls of the room. The blast was so powerful, it blew the room completely up except for the floor, exposing it to the outside. The Digidestined looked outside of the castle. They saw that they were up inside the highest tower of the castle. It was almost a mile down to the ground below.

"No wonder it forever for those Guardromon to lead us up here," Izzy said.

"Forget that! He just took all our digimon down with one attack!" Tai exclaimed.

Tai was right. All but Omnimon had reverted back to their rookie forms. "Not good!" Matt said.

"And now you finally realize coming here was a mistake," Zhuqiaomon said, confidence evident in his voice.

"Omnimon, get the rest of the digimon. We have to fall back!" Tai ordered.

"Fall back! Are you crazy!" Izzy said. "We have a chance to end all this right now. We can't retreat."

"Izzy, look at our digimon," Tai said, and pointed to the digimon. "Even Omnimon is on his last leg. We can't stay here, or Zhuqiaomon will kill us all!"

"And how do you propose we get out of here?" Tk asked. "We're at the top of this castle. The only way out is to go back the way we came."

"We can fly out on Omnimon."

"But Zhuqiaomon will blast us out of the sky."

"We don't have any other choice," Kari said. "We have to get out of here."

"Hurry, Omnimon!" Tai ordered.

Omnimon did as he was told and got the other digimon. He had to dodge attacks from Zhuqiaomon as he picked them up. Omnimon fired back at Zhuqiaomon, but all the attacks hit the shield. The hits did weaken the field, however. Omnimon then flew over to the Digidestined and picked them up. "Hold on. This is going to be a rough ride!"

"Crimson Blaze!" Zhuqiaomon hit Omnimon square in his back.

"We're done for!" Matt exclaimed.

Zhuqiaomon moved in to finish Omnimon off. "DIE!"

"Giga Crusher!" Zhuqiaomon was suddenly hit from behind by ImperialDramon.

"Is that?" Sora said.

"Looks like you guys could use some help," Davis said from ImperialDramon's shoulder.

"Wretches!" Zhuqiaomon shouted. He turned and faced ImperialDramon.

"Transcendent Sword!" Omnimon slashed Zhuqiaomon's back when he turned to face ImperialDramon.

Zhuqiaomon fell over, stunned. "Get us outta here!" Tai ordered.

ImperialDramon and Omnimon flew away as fast as they could. Zhuqiaomon got up and saw the two Mega-Level digimon flying away. "Cowards!"

* * *

The Digidestined returned to Gennai's house after escaping Zhuqiaomon. "What are you two doing here?" Tai asked Ken and Davis.

"Gennai sent me an email telling me what was going on," Ken answered. "I got Davis and Veemon, and we came as fast as we could."

"Looks like we got there right in the nick of time, too," Veemon said.

"You got that right," Tk said. "We would have been dead if you guys hadn't shown up."

"We saved the day again," Davis said, an ear to ear grin on his face.

"This isn't over yet," Yolei said. "All those poor digimon in the dungeon of that castle... We have to help them."

"Zhuqiaomon got the best of us this time," Tai said. "But we will be back. And next time, he won't be so lucky."

"How are we going to beat him," Agumon asked his partner. "That shield stopped every attack we fired at him."

"We'll take Azulongmon with us. With him on our side, we'll stop that guy."

"I will contact Azulongmon," Gennai said. "In the mean time, it would be best if you returned home and recovered. You will need all the strength you can get if you are going to beat him."

Tai nodded. He and the rest of the Digidestined then returned home.


	8. Down Time

Hello again. Big plot surprise awaits you this chapter. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

* * *

Yolei sauntered home after the Digidestined returned from fighting Zhuqiaomon. She felt completely awful after seeing what Zhuqiaomon was doing to the digimon in his part of the Digital World first hand. The image of all those poor digimon locked up in that dungeon still lingered in her head. "Yolei? Are you okay?" Hawkmon asked his partner. Yolei didn't respond to Hawkmon's question. She continued to walk on in dead silence. "Yolei, say something," Hawkmon said, this time nudging Yolei.

"What!" Yolei gasped.

"Calm down, it's just me!" Hawkmon said.

"Oh... I'm sorry... Hawkmon."

"What's wrong with you?"

"I uh... it's nothing. Don't worry about it."

Hawkmon put his hands on his hips. "Come on, Yolei. I know you better than that. There's something bothering you. What is it?"

Yolei sighed. "Drop it, Hawkmon. I don't want to talk right now."

Hawkmon got frustrated. "Yolei, I demand to know why you are acting this way." Hawkmon's voice was stern.

"What part of 'I don't wanna talk about it' don't you get? Just leave me alone. I need some space right now."

Hawkmon sighed. "If that's the way that you want it, then fine. The subject is closed."

The pair walked on. Yolei was very caught up in her thoughts and didn't pay attention to where she was going. She almost walked straight into a wall, but Hawkmon stopped her before she did it. Hawkmon wanted say something, but thought better of it. The two of them started walking again. Yolei still wasn't paying attention to where she was going. She looked straight down at the sidewalk and tuned the whole world out. Her thoughts were only of those poor digimon in Zhuqiaomon's castle. Yolei stayed caught up in her thoughts, and ran right into a passerby. "Watch it, toots!"

Yolei jerked her head up. She felt like she was about two feet tall. "I-I-I'm very sorry..."

"Pay attention to where the hell you're going next time!"

Hawkmon got insanely angry. He jumped kicked the man and knocked him over. "You listen here! Threaten my partner again, and it will be the end of you! You could have been watching where you were going as well." The man shuffled backwards trying to get away from Hawkmon. "Get out of here while you still can!" The man quickly got to his feet and ran away as fast as he could.

"Why did you do that, Hawkmon?" Yolei quietly asked.

Hawkmon jerked his head to look at Yolei, his eyes wide. "Yolei, what on earth is wrong with you! Usually, you would have bitten that man's head off for doing something like that. And yet, you sat there and let him walk all over you."

Yolei almost started to cry. "You don't understand..." she said, barely audible.

Finally, the two of them made it home. Yolei walked inside and locked the door. She walked slowly to her bedroom and threw herself on her bed. She buried her head in her pillow.

"Yolei..." Hawkmon said.

Yolei rolled over and looked at Hawkmon, tears in her eyes. "Oh, Hawkmon, I feel awful."

"What is wrong?"

Yolei wiped her eyes. "The sight of those digimon in that dungeon... it tore me up. They were being tortured and treated so badly. And they did nothing to deserve it. Zhuqiaomon's men were so mean to them." Tears now fell like rain from Yolei's eyes.

"Oh, Yolei. I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault."

"Please don't be sad. It's going to be okay."

"How is it going to be okay? Those digimon are dying in there. And we let them down."

"We're going to stop Zhuqiaomon, and then those digimon will be free again."

"What if we can't stop Zhuqiaomon? What if he turns into Devimon and wants to take over the _whole_ Digital World?"

"That's not going to happen. It's like Tai said to Zhuqiaomon; he's just another face in the crowd compared to what we have faced before. If it weren't for that energy field he put up, he would have been defeated easily." Yolei wiped her eyes once again. Hawkmon could see that she was starting to cheer up some. "Next time, we are going to take Azulongmon with us, and Zhuqiaomon won't stand a chance. That will be end of it. Everything will go back to normal."

Yolei finally stopped crying. "Thanks, Hawkmon. You're a true friend."

Hawkmon scratched the back of his head. "Oh, shucks, stop it. You're making me blush."

The two of them shared a small laugh. Yolei felt the best she had in a while. "You're right. I shouldn't feel bad, because we are going to stop Zhuqiaomon. Then, he won't be able to hurt his servants anymore."

"Now that's the Yolei I know!"

* * *

"Couldn't stop him, could you?" Mimi asked.

"No," Kari replied. "He was too strong for us." Kari went to see Mimi the day after fighting Zhuqiaomon in the Digital World. They were working together making arrangements for the wedding.

"What are you going to do to stop him?" Mimi asked again.

"Next time, the whole team is going. There's strength in numbers. Plus, we're going to take Azulongmon with us to fight him."

"Sounds like a good plan to me."

"I just hope it works. Zhuqiaomon is really strong. And just think, there's all those poor digimon under his control that he's abusing."

"Ugh! Makes my skin crawl to think of how those poor little guys are being mistreated."

"You should have seen Yolei yesterday after we got back. You could tell seeing the digimon in that condition was working on her."

"You saw them?"

"Yeah. Our escorts took us through a dungeon on the way to see Zhuqiaomon." Kari recalled the get wrenching sight in the castle dungeon. "God, Mimi, it was awful in that place. If I had the choice, I would not even start to consider going back to that terrible place."

"Any idea why he's doing all this?"

"The digimon that told us about this, Dorumon, said he's always been really, really angry."

"He's mistreating all the digimon just because he is mad? Oh, that really makes my blood boil! I ought to take Palmon with me and go teach that moron a lesson! I'll show him he can't just enslave and kill digimon because he got a little bit mad!"

Kari stared at Mimi. "Wow, Mimi. I didn't know you could get so mad."

Mimi took a deep breath. "Sorry. It's just... I've gotten all attached to Palmon. She's more than a partner to me. She's my friend for life. And the thought of digimon just like her being tortured to death at the hands of the creep..."

"I know what you mean. I couldn't live with myself if I knew Gatomon was in that place."

"Next time you go to fight that dick, make sure to take me! I don't care what happens with everything, I'm going to go with you guys next time. Zoomealmon will wish he had behaved himself!"

"Uh, Mimi, it's 'Zhuqiaomon', not 'Zoomealmon'.

"Whatever! I'm pissed off at what's his name, and I'll call him whatever I want. Besides, he has to have the most stupid sounding name ever. Whoever gave him that stupid name needs a good slap on the face. They have absolutely no taste!"

"Kari held her hands up in front of herself. "Whoa, calm down, Mimi."

"Oh... Sorry, Kari. I got caught up in the moment. I tend to do that some times."

"That's okay. Lets get back to work."

The girls went back to planning everything for the wedding. "So..." Mimi said. "How are things going with you and Tk?"

Kari donned an ear to ear smile. "Everything is going great! Tk spoils me all the time. I love him so much."

"Oh, that's nice. I'm so glad you two are getting married. You guys truly were made for each other."

Kari rested her elbows on the table. She held her her in her hands and thought of Tk. "Yeah... He's wonderful."

* * *

Tk slowly approached the door to Matt's apartment. After his talk with Tai in the Digital World, Tk decided to try and help Matt with his problem. Tk felt a little unsure, though. He had put Matt down earlier. He wasn't sure if Matt would want to see after what he had said before. Tk backed away from the door and was about to leave, but he stopped. Tk was very conflicted right now. He wasn't sure what to do. His mind raced. _What if he turns me away because I was mean to him back there?_ Tk sighed. Finally, he decided he was going to go through with it regardless of what happened. Matt needed him right now, and Tk was going to be there for him. Tk reached up and knocked on the door. There was no answer at first. Tk thought that Matt might not be home. He was about give up and leave.

"_Who is it?"_ Matt said from the other side of the door.

"Uh... it's Tk." His voice was shaky and unsure.

Matt opened the door and looked at Tk. "What are you doing here?"

Tk found it difficult to look Matt in the eye. "...I came to see you. I thought we could talk."

"Sure. Come on in."

Tk quietly walked inside. He sat down, still not facing Matt. "How are you doing?"

"I would be better if we had stopped Zhuqiaomon," Matt said as he sat down across from Tk.

"Yeah, I was bummed out about that, too."

"So, why don't you tell me the real reason you came here?"

Tk looked at Matt with an inquisitive look. "Huh?"

"Did Tai and Sora send you to spy on me and make sure I stopped using? Look, I know what I did was wrong, and I know they are just trying to help, but they don't have to treat me like a child and send you to spy on me."

"Matt, it's not like that at all."

"Then why are you here?"

"Is it wrong that I want to help you? You're going through a hard time right now. You need somebody to support you."

"I thought you didn't care, after the way you talked before."

Tk rubbed his forehead. "Listen, it was foolish and wrong of me to say all those things. I'm sorry. I really am. All I want now is to help you beat this."

"Do you?"

"Yeah. Please, Matt, I'm ready to put this behind us." Tk looked at Matt. His face was expressionless. "Come on, we can't go on like this."

Matt sat back in his chair. "Why did you say those things? Trying look cool in front of Kari."

"No! Of course not."

"Then why?"

"Because, you're my big brother! I looked up to you. I held you in very high regard."

"Really, now?"

"Yeah. Every little brother looks up to his big brother. I was no different." Tk got up and walked over to Matt. "Do you forgive me?" Tk held his hand out to Matt.

Matt looked at Tk for a second. He then shook Tk's hand. "Yeah. I forgive ya. Besides, we need to focus on Zhuqiaomon. There's no time for us to go on like this."

Tk smiled. "Thank you."

"Ah, don't mention it," Matt said, cooly running his hand through his hair.

"Well, I gotta go. Kari and I are making some plans for the wedding."

"'Kay, little bro. Remember, go along with everything she says. The lady is always right." Tk laughed as he walked outside.

* * *

Tai stood at the sink, washing dishes. "I can't believe you're making me wash dishes! What did I do to deserve this?" Tai said to Sora.

Sora laughed. "It was your turn, and they had to be done." Tai gave her 'the look'. Sora just laughed. "You look so adorable when you get mad."

Tai rolled his eyes. He shut the water off. "Glad that's finished." He walked over and sat down next to Sora. "Ugh... It's been a stressful day today."

Sora ran her hands through Tai's long, chocolate hair. "Relax. Everything is okay."

"Not really. We haven't stopped Zhuqiaomon yet."

The two of them sat there in each others' embrace for a moment. Tai leaned in and gave Sora a kiss. "I love you."

Sora laid her head on Tai's chest. "I love you too."

Tai rested his head on top of Sora's. "Promise me you will always be mine."

"I promise."

Tai felt like he was in heaven at that moment. It almost felt the whole world was at peace. He wished the moment could go on forever. Tai thought about how much he loved Sora. He made important decision. "Marry me, Sora..."

Sora jumped up and started staring at Tai. "What did you say?"

"I don't have a ring or anything, but... will you marry me?"

Sora threw her arms around Tai. "Yes!" Sora couldn't believe it. Tai was finally going to marry her. They were going to get married. All her dreams were coming true. "I love you so much."

"Maybe now mom will leave me the hell alone." Sora laughed very hard. "What's so funny?"

"You..." Sora said between laughs.

Tai was hurt at first, but he started to laugh, too. "That was kinda funny."

"We can have a double wedding with Tk and Kari."

"Yeah. It will be great."

The two of them shared a long, passionate kiss that went on for several minutes.


	9. Back to Work

So sorry for the long delay in updating. I haven't had a lot of time to write lately. I promise there won't be a hold up like this again. Lets get back into the story. Here's chapter 9.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

* * *

"I can just see the look on everybody's face when we tell them," Sora said.

"Yeah," Tai responded. "They'll probably have to have their jaws sewed shut from shock!"

Tai and Sora took Agumon and Biyomon and went to the cafe that all the Digidestined got together at sometimes. Meeting there had become an unofficial tradition among the team. Every once in a while, they would all meet there. They would stay and talk four hours at a time. Tai and Sora had called all the Digidestined and told them to come to the cafe, saying that it was important. It was a trick to get them all together. Tai and Sora were going to reveal the big news that they were getting married. "I hope Kari won't get mad at me," Tai said.

"Why would she get mad?"

"She will probably say something like, 'You're trying to steal my thunder!' I can just hear it now."

Sora let out a small chuckle. "I'm sure she will be happy for you."

"We'll see."

Slowly, the Digidestined and their digimon partners started walking into the cafe. "What's up?" Joe said as he and Gomamon walked in. "Your call sounded kinda cryptic."

"You'll find out in time," Tai answered, a big, evil grin on his face. "It's gonna really surprise you."

Most of the team had arrived. All but Ken and Wormmon had made it. "Is there something going down in the Digital World?" Tk asked.

"No, nothing like that," Sora answered.

"Well then, what's the big deal?" Cody asked. "You acted like there was an emergency and called us all here on short notice. If it doesn't have to do with the Digital World, then what is it?"

"We'll tell ya just as soon as Ken and Wormmon get here," Tai said.

The team waited for Ken to show up. Several minutes had passed, and still no Ken. "Why won't he hurry up?" Mimi asked impatiently. "I want to know what this is all about!"

Right after Mimi finished her sentence, Ken and Wormmon walked through the door. "Sorry we're late," Ken said. "My computer was on the fritz. I finally had to give up." Ken went and found a seat. "Okay, what's all the urgency about? Something going on the Digital World?"

Tai and Sora looked at each other and shared a small laugh. "No, it's right here in the Real World," Tai replied.

"Are ya goin' to tell us, or are we gonna have ta force it outta you guys?" Veemon said.

"Should you tell them, or should I?" Sora asked Tai.

"Guess I will." Tai got up and addressed the group. "Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to announce that Ms. Sora and I are going to get married."

As Tai predicted, the team's mouths hit the floor. "Tai, you son of a gun! I'm so proud for you!" Matt said.

"Hey! You're stealing mine and Tk's thunder!" Kari said.

Tai looked at Sora with an 'I told you so' face. He had to fight to keep from laughing. "Come on, sis! I thought you would be happy for me."

Kari sighed. "I am, but..."

"Come on, babe," Tk told Kari. "This is a big thing for them."

"Fine," Kari said, crossing her arms. She wanted to act like she was mad, but just couldn't. Her beloved big brother was getting married to the girl of his dreams. She walked up and gave Tai a big hug. "I knew you had in you, big brother."

All the guys walked up and shook Tai's hand. Tai didn't know what to do with all the attention. Sure, he loved it, but this was crazy. "Thanks guys."

The Digidestined stayed there and talked and told a bunch of old stories, mostly things from their adventures in the Digital World, until sundown. Finally, it came time for the cafe to close, and they all had to leave. The team walked outside and started saying their goodbyes and going their separate ways. Mimi walked up and gave Tai a big hug. "Listen up, boy," she said sternly. "Sora is like a sister to me. If I find out that you did anything to hurt her, I will come after you!"

Tai put his hands on his hips. "Ha, I would like to see you try."

"What, you think I couldn't!"

"I know you couldn't."

Mimi started to get mad. "Calm down, Mimi!" Sora told her. "You don't have to worry about that. Tai would never hurt me. Besides, threaten my man again, and I will get mad."

Mimi started balling. "Oh, Sora, I'm sorry I mad you mad. I promise I won't ever say anything like that ever again. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me? I'll do whatever you ask of me if you will! Oh, please, Sora!" Mimi said very quickly and with one breath.

"Come on, Mimi, it was a joke!"

Mimi started scratching the back of her head and blushing. "Oh... I have to learn not to get caught up in the moment..."

Some of the Digidestined laughed at Mimi. Matt leaned over to whisper to Tk. 'Note to self: never try to joke with Mimi.'

The two of them shared a laugh.

"Okay, boys and girls," Tai said. "Get some rest tonight. Tomorrow, we are all free, and we're _all_ going to the Digital World this time. We have to stop Zhuqiaomon, and I need everybody to be on their game tomorrow." The team all nodded at Tai.

* * *

The Digidestined and their digimon all gathered at Izzy's house the next morning. "'Kay, remember, Zhuqiaomon is really strong," Tai told the rest of the team as they prepared to go back to the Digital World. "We've faced bigger tasks and before and still came out on top. But still, this is a guardian of the Digital World we're talking about here. He has some sneaky tricks, but I have confidence that we can stop him. Plus, we're getting Azulongmon's this time. Zhuqiaomon is sure to lose." Any doubt the Digidestined might have felt before was gone after Tai's inspiring speech. "Is everybody ready? Okay then. Let's go!"

"Gonna kick Zhuqiaomon's butt!" Davis repeated several times.

"Can't wait to knock that dummy off his throne," Tk said.

"Remember, guys, this ins't for us," Cody said. "We're doing this for all the captive digimon."

"Are we gonna stand here and talk all day, or are we going to go to the Digital World?" Gatomon said impatiently.

"Okay, okay! Don't get your tail in a twist!" Tai said.

Tk stepped forward and opened the Digiport. The team all held their Digivices up the Izzy's computer screen and were transported to the Digital World.

* * *

The Digidestined arrived at Gennai's house after emerging from the portal. "Gennai, is Azulongmon here?" Tai asked.

Gennai sighed. "I'm afraid not..."

"What!" Agumon demanded.

"Azulongmon is tending to other business. He won't be able to join you."

Davis tried to keep from saying something, but just couldn't. "What the hell kind of business is more important that what we have to do! I mean really, there are digimon in that sector of the Digital World dying right now. Sure, I'm confident that we can stop this idiot on our own, but-"

"SHUT UP, DAVIS!" Yolei shouted.

Davis jerked his head over to look at her. "But I-"

"Just be quiet! The last thing we need right now is for you to go on one of your rampages."

"She's right, Davis," Veemon said. "Remember what happened last time you rushed into things with Ogremon?"

Davis scratched the back of his head. "Well..."

"So Azulongmon isn't going to be able to come with us," Tk said. "So what? I would rather beat the jerk without him anyway. I still want revenge after that whooping he gave us last time."

"Go Tk!" Patamon cheered.

Tai turned back to Gennai. "I guess we will be on our way then."

"Are you sure you want to go in without Azulongmon?" Gennai asked.

"This may be the last time the whole team gets to come to the Digital World again for a long time. If we're gonna do this, we need to do it right now."

Gennai sighed again. "Very well. Be careful."

Tai grinned. "Always." He and the Digidestined walked up to Gennai's computer and used it to transport to Zhuqiaomon's fortress.

* * *

The Digidestined arrived in the forest that was next to Zhuqiaomon's castle. As usual, they landed in a big pile on the ground next to the T.V. portal. The team grumbled as they usually did after ending up in this state. They got up off the ground and dusted themselves off. "Alright, guys, follow me," Tai said. The team did as they were told. They walked until they almost at the edge of the forest but not out of it. They could see Zhuqiaomon's castle through the trees.

"That's where this creep lives?" Cody asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah. You weren't here last time," Tk said.

Yolei looked at the castle. The awful memories of the dungeon reared their ugly heads. 'Not again...' she muttered to herself.

"Okay, obviously, the direct approach isn't going to work here," Izzy said. "We need to come up with a plan to get inside."

"Okay, everybody, take a seat," Tai said. "We need to work together and come up with a plan to get inside there."

"While you guys try to come up with a plan, I could fly around and run recon," Tentomon said.

"Good idea, Tentomon. Do your thing," Tai replied.

"Be careful, Tentomon," Izzy said.

Tentomon nodded and took off to go get a look at the castle. Meanwhile, the Digidestined discussed several possible courses of action they could take. "Some of us could run a distraction to draw the guards' attention, and the rest could sneak inside."

"Won't work," Tai said. "All of us are going to have to face Zhuqiaomon."

"Is he really that strong?" Palmon asked.

"He's strong, for sure, but that's not what makes him so dangerous."

"He has some kind of energy shield that he raises to protect himself," Izzy said. "Any attack used against him is blocked."

"If we hit it hard enough, will the shield go down?" Ken asked.

"I don't know. We haven't tried that yet."

"Can he attack with that thing up?" Cody asked.

"No. He has to let it down if he wants to attack," Tk answered.

"Then that's how we defeat him," Joe said. "One of our digimon can draw him into attacking. When he lets that shield down, we can move in and take him out."

"We were starting to try that before he took us down last time," Tai said. "If we had know that from the start, we might have been able to stop him last time. But back to the matter at hand, how do we get inside that place?"

"Well, Zhuqiaomon's chamber is in the tallest tower in the castle," Izzy said. "We _could_ blow it open and charge."

"Wait, didn't he blow that thing open already?" Matt said.

"Yeah, he did," Biyomon said.

The team looked up at the tallest tower of the castle. "I'll be, they already fixed it," Izzy said.

"Well, why don't we use Izzy's plan then," Mimi asked.

"What if Zhuqiaomon isn't inside there when we attack?" Cody asked.

"Ugh, this is so frustrating!" Sora said. "Every time we come up with a solution, there's something that makes it useless."

"Keep the faith, Sora. We'll figure something out," Biyomon told her partner.

Suddenly, Tentomon got back from observing the castle from overhead. "Good news, guys."

"What's that?" Tai asked.

"I was flying around the castle, looking for a way to get inside. I found what looks like a balcony."

"A balcony?" Joe said.

"They must use it as a lookout post," Izzy said. "That's our way in. Then, we can go find that punk and put an end to all of this."

"What if there's a guard there?" Patamon asked.

"I wouldn't still be alive if there had been a guard there," Tentomon replied. "I got up close to take a look. There's nobody there right now."

"Sloppy guards. How stupid do you have to be to leave something like that unguarded?" Ken asked.

"It doesn't matter. Now we can get in there and go find Zhuqiaomon," Izzy said.

"I love it when a plan comes together," Tk said.

"Hey, that's my line!" Tai said.

"So, should we have the digimon Digivolve and fly us up there?" Davis asked.

"No, that would make it too easy to spot us," Tai said. "We used Palmon's vines once to climb up a wall. We can use them to get up to that lookout post."

The Digidestined got up off the ground. "Oh. I was just thinking the same thing!" Davis said.

The team quickly ran over the the perimeter wall around the castle. "Okay, Palmon. Do your thing," Mimi said.

Palmon walked up to the wall and and sent her vines high up into the air. She wrapped them around the top of the wall and over the other side so they could climb down when they got to the top. "Better start climbing. Looks like it's a long way up," Palmon said.

Tai and Agumon were the first ones to climb up. Biyomon, Tentomon, Patamon, and Hawkmon all went ahead and flew over the wall. Joe and Matt watched the sides to make sure no guards came by and interfered with them. "I think I hear somebody coming," Joe said.

"Crap! Hurry up, guys!" Tk said.

Ken and Wormmon started climbing while Tai and Agumon were still on their way up. "I know I heard something that time!" Joe said.

"Come on, Tai. I thought you were an athlete!" Agumon taunted. Finally, he and Tai reached the top and started climbing back down.

Kari and Gatomon got on next. Finally, it was down to Joe and Gomamon. Gomamon grabbed right on while Joe stood on the ground. "What are you waiting for, Joe?" Gomamon asked.

"I-I'm scared of heights..." Joe stammered.

"Joe, you get up there!" Palmon demanded. "We don't have time for this."

Joe sighed and got up on Palmon's vines. "Oh! This is so scary!"

"Quiet, Joe!" Gomamon scolded.

Joe and Gomamon made it up to the top and started making their way back down. "Jump guys. We'll catch you," Tai said. Gomamon jumped right away. Kari caught him. Joe started to jump, but stopped right before he did it. "Joe, don't be a coward!" Tai said.

"I'd like to see you up here!"

Tai, Matt, Tk, and Ken all made a net with their arms. "Come on, we won't let you fall," Matt said.

Joe took a deep breath. Finally, he jumped. He landed perfectly in the net the guys made with their arms. "Now was that so bad?" Tk asked.

"I guess not."

Palmon jumped over the wall and joined back up with the others. "Wow, that was close! That guard almost spotted me."

"Bad news, Joe. You have to do that one more time," Matt said.

Joe slumped over, radiating defeat. "This is the worst day ever!"

Tai gave Joe a hard pat on the back. "Come on, man. A little shear terror is good for you."

"How?"

"The lookout post is over here," Tentomon said. He led the Digidestined over to it.

"Wow. That's way up there," Armadillomon said.

"Can you reach that far, Palmon?" Mimi asked.

"Ah, that's nothing!" Palmon nonchalantly said. She sent her vines up and wrapped them onto the balcony. "Up and over."

The team started climbing Palmon's vines again. They all reached the top uneventfully this time, Even Joe. "I'm proud of you, Joe. You didn't whine one time on the way up," Tk said. Joe didn't reply, but simply adjusted his glasses.

"It didn't hurt that there weren't any guards to make us hurry this time," Gomamon said.

"Lets go find ourselves a maniac," Tai said.

The team carefully made their way down the corridors of the castle. They made a corner and looked around. "I think I remember this place..." Agumon said.

"You do?" Tai asked.

"Yeah. I have photographic memory. This is part of the way those Guardromon took us to go see Zhuqiaomon last time."

"We don't have to go past that dungeon again, do we?" Yolei asked.

"No. All we have to do is go up a few stairs."

"Great! Take us to his lair," Tai said.

Agumon walked to the head of the group and started leading them through the castle. After much walking and dodging guards, they came to the large doors that led into Zhuqiaomon's chamber. "This is it, guys," Tai said. "He's through here. Here's hoping we can get the element of surprise."

"If we want the element of surprise, then I would suggest we have our digimon Digivolve right now instead of after we go inside," Ken said. "It will also help us get these large doors open."

"Good point, Ken. Okay, guys, time to go to work."

The digimon all nodded. They started to Digivolve into their highest forms. Agumon and Gabumon warp Digivolved into Omnimon. Veemon and Wormmon Digivolved into ImperialDramon Fighter Mode. Patamon and Armadillomon Digivolved into Shakkoumon. Gatomon and Hawkmon Digivolved into Silphymon. Biyomon Digivolved into Garudamon. Tentomon Digivolved into MegaKabuterimon. Palmon Digivolved into Lillymon. And lastly, Gomamon Digivolved into Zudomon.

The digimon took up a lot of room in the corridor, and pushed the humans up against the wall. "I've been in some tight spaces before, but this is crazy!" Davis said.

"Hurry up and open the door!" Tai exclaimed. "You're crushing us over here!"

Omnimon kicked the giant doors open. He and the other digimon ran inside and looked. There was Zhuqiaomon. He was talking to a MachineDramon. "I do not have time for you and your uselessness!" Zhuqiaomon blasted and killed the MachineDramon.

"His shield is down! Now's our chance!" Tai said.

"Supreme Cannon!" Omnimon fired at Zhuqiaomon, who saw the attack out the corner of his eye. Zhuqiaomon got his shield up just in time.

"You maggots again! I will destroy you this time! There will be no escape!"


	10. Burn it to the Ground

I'm baaaack! Are we already to chapter 10? Wow... Big plot surprise awaits you at the end of this chapter. Did you just scroll down to the bottom to see what it is? Shame on you. This chapter is named after the Nickelback song of the same name. Without further ado, lets get back into the action.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or any of its characters.

* * *

"Somebody run a distraction so he will let his shield down!" Tai ordered.

Shakkoumon, Garudamon, and Zudomon circled around and got behind Zhuqiaomon. They combined their attacks and fired them at Zhuqiaomon. The mega attack hit the shield, but appeared not to do any damage. "Take this!" Zhuqiaomon let the shield down and swung his talons at the three digimon. His talons never got there, as Omnimon fired his cannon arm and hit Zhuqiaomon in the back. Zhuqiaomon stumbled and fought to keep his balance.

"So far so good," Tk said.

"We've got him cornered!" Davis said, his voice oozing confidence.

"Giga Crusher!" ImperialDramon fired the cannon in his chest at Zhuqiaomon, but he had already raised his shield again.

"Everybody, attack him all at once," Izzy said. "That shield may be potent, but it can't be indestructible."

"Desolation Blast!" Zhuqiaomon lowered his shield and used the unidirectional attack that broke the Digidestined's back last time.

"Not so fast!" ImperialDramon ran up and punched Zhuqiaomon in the chest before he could use his attack. Zhuqiaomon was stunned after being hit. ImperialDramon did a three punch combo to Zhuqiaomon's face. Then, he kicked Zhuqiaomon in the gut, sending him backwards. "Positron Laser!" ImperialDramon shot his cannon arm and hit Zhuqiaomon in the head.

"That's the way!" Sora cheered from the sidelines.

The rest of the digimon lined up behind ImperialDramon. "Move!" Omnimon said.

ImperialDramon stepped to the side and out of the digimon's line of fire. The digimon all combined their attacks and fired them at Zhuqiaomon. Zhuqiaomon looked up just in time, and raised his shield. The ultra attack hit the shield and exploded. The blast was powerful enough to break through the shield. The blast managed to get to Zhuqiaomon, injuring him further. Zhuqiaomon fell and hit the hard stone floor below.

"Hold up, guys!" Tai ordered. The digimon looked over at Tai, shocked. "You heard me." Tai walked towards Zhuqiaomon with authority. Zhuqiaomon looked up and saw Tai. "Listen up, tough guy! We've got you down on your last leg, if you hadn't noticed already. I don't want to have to kill you, but I will if I have to. Now, there are two options here. First, you can peacefully surrender and give in to our demands. We are willing to spare you. Second, you can keep fighting this losing battle, and die. I don't think it's a hard decision to make. What's it gonna be, tough guy?"

Zhuqiaomon got up off the floor in the blink of an eye. "I choose neither!" Zhuqiaomon faced away from Tai and blasted the wall open. He flew through it and escaped.

Tai ran up to the hole in the wall. "Who's the coward now, you big, fat jerk!" Tai shouted so loud that it made his throat sore.

Sora ran up next to Tai and put her hand on his shoulder. "What's gotten to you?"

Tai ignored Sora and turned to the digimon. "Quick, go after him!"

Omnimon led all the digimon that could fly out the hole in the wall to go chase after Zhuqiaomon. "Wow, Tai!" Davis said. "You are the man! The way you talked to that guy was awesome!"

"It was also really stupid, reckless, and dangerous," Sora said.

"We have to stop that idiot without killing him if at all possible," Tai replied. "I was just doing my job."

Sora threw her arms around Tai. "You could have died!"

Tai wrapped his arms around Sora as well. "What could have happened doesn't matter."

* * *

The Digidestined made the long trek back outside the castle. They set all the digimon that Zhuqiaomon had been holding captive free. They gleefully ran out eerie castle, now free from Zhuqiaomon's evil rule. Some others that were loyal to Zhuqiaomon tried to put up a fight, but were dealt with quickly. Some of Zhuqiaomon's servants saw the Digidestined coming and simply ran. They got out of dodge and never showed their faces in that area ever again. The Digidestined emerged from the castle and watched as the once captive digimon ran and disappeared into the forest outside. "I can rest easy now knowing all those poor souls aren't suffering anymore," Yolei said. "The thought of them being in there going through who knows what really disturbed me."

"Relax, Yolei," Kari reassured her friend. "It's over now. You don't have to worry anymore."

"Yeah. It's nice not having that on my shoulders anymore. I just hope Omnimon and the others stop that monster!"

"I still can't believe we beat that guy without taking one hit after he ran rings around us last time," Tk said.

"It's 'cause I was here this time!" Davis joked.

"Yeah, sure it was," Cody rolled his eyes.

"I'm just glad it's over now," Kari said. "Things can go back to normal now."

"Yeah, and we can get married without any worries on our minds," Tk said, wrapping his arms around Kari.

Suddenly, Omnimon and the other digimon got back from chasing Zhuqiaomon. They landed and met back up with the humans. "I take it Zhuqiaomon got away?" Tai asked Agumon.

"He's the fastest digimon I have ever seen..." Omnimon replied. "Before I even knew what happened, he was already out of our sight. We had no idea where he went."

"Great! We did this all for nothing!" Mimi cried.

"No, we accomplished a great deal here," Tai said. "We sent Zhuqiaomon a strong message. He knows that we can beat him now. We have the advantage."

"We also freed all the captive digimon from his fortress," Ken said. "He may have gotten away, but his operations here have been brought to a halt."

"Speaking of his fortress," Izzy said. "Why don't we blow the place?"

"Why? What would that accomplish?" Kari asked.

"He won't have any place to come back to," Tai said. "Besides, our message to him gets all the more powerful."

"What if there's somebody still inside there?" Sora asked. "If we destroyed the place while innocent digimon were in there, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"We can go inside and scout the place to make sure that no more digimon are inside," said MegaKabuterimon.

"Do it," Tai said. "I've had about I can stand of this place."

All but Omnimon and ImperialDramon de-evolved back into their rookie forms and started clearing the castle. Several minutes later, the came back out. "We checked every inch of the place," Biyomon said. "The whole place is abandoned. It's safe to destroy it."

"Good," Tai said. "Anybody who isn't Omnimon or ImperialDramon, back away from the castle. A bunch of debris is about to fall." The Digidestined and their digimon started walking away from the castle. "Okay, guys, go do your thing." Tai walked away as well.

"With pleasure," ImperialDramon said gleefully.

"Giga Crusher!"

"Supreme Cannon!"

Omnimon and ImperialDramon fired their attacks into the base of the castle. The attacks themselves didn't destroy the castle, but where they landed blew away a lot of the load-bearing structure. With nothing to hold it up, the castle started collapsing and fell to the ground. Some of the Digidestined shouted with joy as they watched the castle come falling to the ground. Dust flew up into the air for many miles. The Digidestined covered their mouths to make sure they didn't breathe in the dust. Omnimon and ImperialDramon caught up with the rest of the team and de-evolved. After several minutes, the dust finally cleared, revealing a large pile of debris that used to be Zhuqiaomon's castle. It was difficult to tell that all the rubble was once a really tall building. The Digidestined jumped with joy at the sight.

"That's what happens when you mess with the Digidestined!" Davis cheered.

"Zhuqiaomon will think twice before he tries to pull that again!" Armadillomon said.

"Great work, team," Tai said. "We brought Zhuqiaomon's empire down to the ground. Literally. And this sector of the Digital World is better for it." Tai started pacing as he addressed the group. "This isn't over yet. Not at all. Zhuqiaomon is still out there somewhere. He hasn't given up. If we don't watch out, he will try to rebuild. We can't allow him to do this. All our work will have been for nothing. Some time later, we will come back and either finish him off or convince him to see things from our point of view." Tai stopped pacing and faced the group. "But that's for another day. Right now, lets enjoy the victory."

The Digidestined and their digimon partners were smiles all around. They went to the nearest T.V. and returned to the Real World.

* * *

Zhuqiaomon flew as fast he could. He didn't stop to look behind himself. He knew that he had probably lost those fools, but he could chance that they were still back there. Finally, he got tired. He looked around and noticed he was in one of the Digital World's many deserts. Below him was a canyon. Zhuqiaomon flew down into the canyon and landed. The sun was starting to set, and was making some shade down in the canyon. Zhuqiaomon took cover in the shade. Several hours had passed. The sun had long since gone down. There was no sign of the Digidestined. Zhuqiaomon assumed that he was in the clear. _Foolish humans! I should go into the real world and destroy them for a transgression such as this! I am royalty! All should bow down before me! I am royalty!_

Zhuqiaomon's thoughts were interrupted as he thought he heard voices. "Who is there!"

Several of the servants that had fled from the castle when the Digidestined were freeing the slaves appeared. "It is us, lord!" said an IceDevimon. He appeared to be the leader of the digimon.

"My servants! You found me."

"Of course, lord. We are loyal to you. We will follow you to death!"

"How did you escape?"

"Those foolish humans were too lazy to finish us off. We ran away to come find you so we could plot revenge!"

"They freed the slaves?"

"Yes, lord. Even worse, they destroyed your fortress!"

"My holy castle has been destroyed!"

"Yes, lord. They destroyed it."

Zhuqiaomon got insanely angry at the news of his castle being destroyed. "It does not matter. We shall start anew. I will show those humans what happens when you mess with me!"

Little did Zhuqiaomon know, a Lobomon that was claiming to be loyal to him was actually an informant working for the Digidestined. Tai knew that Zhuqiaomon was going to get away after he escaped from the castle, so he approached the Lobomon with an offer. Lobomon couldn't refuse Tai's offer to help the Digidestined find Zhuqiaomon and finish him off for good. Lobomon would report to the Digidestined as soon as it was safe and let them know where Zhuqiaomon's new hideout was.

* * *

The next day, Kari hurriedly made her way to the park. Tk called her on the phone and told her to come see him as soon as possible. She couldn't help but wonder if something was wrong. Kari didn't pay attention to where she was going and almost bumped into several people on her way to the park. Her mind was racing a mile a minute. Finally, she made to the park. It was unusually crowded. Kari had to wade through several throngs of people. She looked around, but couldn't find Tk. Finally, she spotted him next to the other entrance to the park. "Tk!" Kari carefully ran over to Tk, making sure she didn't run into any of the other people.

Tk looked up at Kari. His expression was one of uncertainty. "Oh, hey, Kari."

"You said you wanted me to meet you here?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, what's this all about?"

Tk opened his mouth to say something, but closed it right back. _How should I say this?_

Kari tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Is something wrong?"

Tk heaved a heavy sigh. "You know what, it's nothing. I shouldn't have called you here. This was stupid."

Tk turned to leave, but Kari put her hand on Tk's shoulder and stopped him. "Tk, I went through a lot to get here to talk to you. I got cussed out at least ten times on the way here because I walking really fast and wasn't paying attention to where I was going, only for you to tell me it's nothing? What's going on?"

Tk sighed again. He turned back around and faced Kari again. "Um... Kari..."

Kari put her hand on her hips and started tapping her foot. "Yeah?" Tk was really starting to test her patience.

Tk looked down at the ground. He couldn't muster up the courage to look Kari in the eye right now. "I think that we should call the wedding off."


	11. Ream 'Em and Weep

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

* * *

"What did you just say!" Kari demanded. She was hurt, scared, and angry all at the same time. "You want to call off the wedding! What the hell, Tk!"

"Kari, please! Try to understand-"

"What's there to understand! What, is there another girl that you have been seeing behind my back! Is that it! I just wasn't enough, you had to have two women!"

"It's not like that at all! It's like this-"

"You idiot!" Kari had to fight the urge to hit Tk right now. "We were doing good. Why the hell do you want to call the whole thing off!"

"Let me talk and I'll tell you!" Tk knew Kari was going to get mad, but her constant interruptions were really getting on his nerves. "We aren't ready to get married yet, Kari. We aren't even in our 20's yet. It's way too soon to be thinking about this right now."

"What crack are you smoking, Tk! What's gotten into you? Not ready? What on God's green earth is that supposed to mean!"

"We rushed into things. Didn't think everything through."

"I cannot believe what I am hearing! This is bull!" Kari couldn't stop herself anymore. She reached back and slapped Tk with as much strength as she could muster. Tk held his face where Kari slapped him. He looked at her, his expression blank. Kari ran away as fast as she could, tears freely falling down her face. She wanted to curl up in a ball and just die. Her heart was completely broken.

Tk stood there in the park holding his face. The rest of the people were standing there staring, but he didn't even notice them. He was far too caught up in thought. _What have I done...?_ Tk turned and saw the other people in the park. "Take a picture, it lasts longer." All the people quickly went back about their business and tried to ignore Tk. _Maybe I shouldn't have done this... But, I had to. Because, well, I just had to..._

Tk left the park and sauntered around the city for what seemed like hours. He didn't know where he was going, nor why he was going there. His world had come crashing down. It felt like his life was over. He had broken his beloved Kari's heart. Everything was ruined now. Tk started to second guess his decision again, but convinced himself he had done the right thing. _We can't rush into this thing with nothing to count on but love. Her heart would have been broken worse if we really had gone through with it._

Tk quietly walked around hanging his head some more. His legs finally got tired. Tk found a bench and sat down. He looked up and noticed he was over by the ferris wheel. This was the bench he and Kari had sat down on after the rode the ferris wheel on their date all that time ago. The night he decided to make ask for Kari's hand in marriage. What a mistake that was. Tk tried to find out where it all went wrong. He and Kari were so in love. Almost inseparable. And now, it had all come falling to the ground. _Why does my life have to be filled with such misery? Why can't I just have a normal life?_

Tk recalled all the hard times he had been through in his life. Getting lost in the Digital World. Being separated from Matt when Devimon split up File Island. Losing Patamon to Devimon. And not to mention his parents were divorced. Tk leaned his head over the backrest of the bench. _Why me...?_ He leaned over and held his head in his hands. "I hate my life..."

"What kind of language is that!"

Tk looked over and saw Davis. _Oh, great! Now I'm going to get picked on by Mr.-Know-It-All!_ "What are you doing here?"

"I heard about what happened earlier today."

"If you're going to tell me what an idiot I am, don't. I _really_ don't want to hear it."

Davis sat down next to Tk. "What's up with you? You and Kari were all lovey dovey, and you want to call it all off?"

Tk sighed. "I don't want to hurt her."

"Well, looks like you failed miserably there."

Tk made a fist with his hand. "Dude..."

"Chill, pal. I'm here to help."

"Okay, help me by going away."

"So, you're just going to push all your friends away?"

"Why do you care?"

"Tk, I know there have been times where it was rocky between us," Tk jerked his head to look at Davis. He couldn't believe that Davis had actually gotten his name right. "But we're still friends. Partners at that. You helped me after I was demoted before. What's wrong with me helping you?" Tk sighed. "Now tell me, what's going on?"

Tk got up and started pacing. "I'm... afraid."

"Afraid? Of what?"

"I'm afraid that... Kari and I... might end up like..."

"End up like what?"

"Like my parents."

Davis put his hand to his chin. "You're afraid that you and Kari are going to go down the exact same path that your parents did."

"Yeah. What we have is great. I don't want to lose it."

"You and Kari are like that." Davis crossed his index and middle fingers as an example. "How could you end up like that?"

Tk started staring at the ground. "When we got home from the Digital World yesterday, I walked inside my apartment, and overheard an argument between my parents."

* * *

_Tk walked inside his mother's apartment. "Man, I can't wait for me and Kari to get our own place. It's going to be great not living with mom anymore." Tk looked around and noticed his mother wasn't there. "Working late like always." Suddenly, Tk heard somebody talking, or shouting rather, from the kitchen._

"_Why don't you just get the hell out of my house!"_

"_Is that mom?" Tk muttered to himself._

"_Maybe I will!"_

"_Dad?"_

"_You're such a stuck up idiot!"_

"_Great, dad and mom at it again. Probably over something petty and stupid like usual."_

"_If I am, it's from living in a house with you!"_

"_Me! What about you? You're the all-knowing life philosopher! Everybody should ask you how to live their lives!"_

"_Man, that sounds intense..." Tk said._

"_I don't know have the things that your mother does!"_

"_Leave my family out of this!"_

"_Admit it! I'm right!"  
_

"_I only wish my mother knew half the things yours did!"_

"_Now's who's taking shots at somebody's family!"_

"_Good lord, did they always fight like this?" Tk mused._

"_I've had enough. Will you please leave already!"_

"_Yeah! I will! Don't know why I even bothered to come here in the first place!"_

_Mr. Ishda and Mrs. Takaishi walked out of the kitchen and saw Tk standing there. He had a look on his face that said 'was all that really necessary?' "Oh, Tk, I didn't hear you come in," Mrs. Takaishi said._

"_Yeah, how could anybody hear anything over how loud you were yelling?" Tk asked._

"_You... heard all that...?" Mrs. Takaishi felt some what embarrassed._

"_If you don't mind, I will be on my way," Mr. Takaishi said. He let himself out, leaving Tk and his mother standing there awkwardly._

"_What was it about this time?"_

"_Well uh... you see... Tk, that is absolutely none of your business!"_

_Tk rolled his eyes. "Fine, then what I do is none of your business!"_

"_Tk, you respect your mother!"_

"_I'm not a kid anymore mom. Stop bossing me around!"_

_Mrs. Takaishi took a deep breath to try and calm down. "I feel sorry for you, Tk."_

"_Why?"_

"_You're getting married soon."_

"_Yeah, I can't wait to so I can get out of here and not have to put up with all the pointless fighting."_

"_It's a mistake to do it, Tk. You heard what happened here? You're going to go through that the rest of your life."_

"_Yeah, sure. Stop trying to take your anger out on me."_

"_I'm not. Just wait. I bet you and Kari will start fighting in two weeks!"_

_

* * *

_

"I don't want to end up like that," Tk told Davis. "That's why I want to call it all off."

"You believe that lode o' garbage?" Davis said.

Tk looked a Davis, an inquisitive look on his face. "Huh?"

"Look, couples fight sometimes. Sometimes, the fight a damn lot. Just ask my parents. But when they have problems, they work it out."

"But-"

"But what? That's what you do when you're married; you compromise and work it out."

Tk thought for a moment. "I... never thought about that."

"You already got your work cut out trying to work this mess you're already in out."

"Gee, thank you so much, Davis."

Davis donned an ear to ear smile. "Thank you! Thank you very much! I'll be here all week. Be sure to tip your waitress."

Tk let out a small laugh. It was the best he had felt in over a day. "I gotta call her. Tell her what an idiot I was to even think that."

"That's more like it."

Tk was about to leave, but stopped. "Davis..."

"Hmm?"

Tk shifted from one foot to the other thinking of what to say. "Why did you do this?"

"Huh?"

"Why did you track me down and try to help me. Is this some scheme that will make me owe you one?"

Davis let out a big laugh. "Funny..."

"Really, why?"

Davis put arms behind his head. "Like I said, you helped me out after they demoted me and made you leader. I'm just returning the favor."

Tk was taken aback. "Wow, Davis. That's... really generous of you."

"Yeah, yeah, but don't tell anybody. I DO have a reputation to keep, ya know. And we're all even now, so don't say that we aren't."

Davis and Tk shook hands. "You got it. Thanks, friend."

"Yeah. Now, you go make it up to that poor girl."

"Okay." Tk turned and started running so he could go call Kari.

"You be nice to her." Tk was a good distance away, so Davis raised his voice. "I'll find out if you don't!"

Tk looked back over his shoulder, a cheesy grin on his face. He waved at Davis as he walked. _Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to get help from him. Now I've seen everything._

_

* * *

_

In the Digital World, Lobomon was deep undercover spying on Zhuqiaomon. He and those still loyal to him had left the desert. They found a village inhabited by several various digimon. They ran all the digimon out and took the village over to serve as a new base. "Here, we will began anew," Zhuqiaomon told his followers.

Lobomon scowled as he listened to Zhuqiaomon talk to his servants. He found it very hard not to start trying to take on Zhuqiaomon and all his servants by himself. But for now, he would go along with it. He was in complete shock that Zhuqiaomon would sink so low as to attack a peaceful digimon village and run all its inhabitants out just so he would have a place to hide.

"I want patrols around the perimeter at all hours," Zhuqiaomon ordered. "Erect a wall around the village. Put part of it under ground. Have guard towers all around the wall so no one can go over the wall. I don't want any digimon getting inside."

Lobomon would observe the patrol pattern and let the Digidestined know how to get through it. Getting through the wall would be something else, though. He figured if the Digidestined got over the wall at the castle, they would have no trouble getting over this one. "At last, this evil reign of terror will come to a close."


	12. Swaying Emotions

Thank you guys for your reviews. You are what inspires me to keep going. Here's chapter 12.

Disclaimer: Own Digimon, I do not. Property of Toei, it is.

* * *

Kari lied on her bed in her room crying. She had been there in that condition ever since she ran home from the park. Tk's words still rang loud and clear in her mind. _"I think we should call the wedding off..._ Kari wasn't sure if she was mad or hurt. Her feelings were a mess right now. Mr. & Mrs. Kamiya had tried to talk to her, but she simply ignored them. She couldn't talk because how much she was crying. Not even Gatomon could get her to cheer up. Finally, her parents managed to get her to tell her what was wrong. They tried to comfort her, but she politely asked to be alone. He parents respected her wishes and let her be. This was the worst pain she had ever experienced. Her heart ached so bad right now. She wanted to just fall asleep and wake up tomorrow and hope none of this had ever happened. That was not an option, unfortunately. This day would haunt her for the rest of her life. Everything had gone to hell. Her life was falling apart at the seams. Kari wondered why Tk would say such a thing. Was there somebody else? Had he just simply fallen out of love with her? Kari's mind raced endlessly. It made her head hurt. Kari turned over and lied face-up now. It was the most movement she had made in quite some time. She looked outside the window in her room. It had become completely cloudy outside. The sun was going down, and dusk was setting in. The setting sun and the cloud cover made the remaining daylight a pretty shade of blue. The light was soothing to Kari. It helped to ease her mind just a little bit. Kari's eyes slowly started to close. The stress of the day had taken it's toll on her. She was just about to fall asleep when her cell phone started ringing. Kari heaved a sigh of annoyance. She reluctantly got out of bed and get her phone. She looked at the caller I.D. _Tk calling_. Anger started welling up inside of Kari. She flipped her phone open and then closed it right back. _I do not want to talk to _you_ right now._ She turned her phone off and went back to bed. After several minutes, she fell asleep.

* * *

Tk ran right home after he talked to Davis. He had completely changed his mind about everything. He was dead set on getting married to Kari now. He got his phone out and dialed Kari. _This is going to annoy her, but I have to tell her I changed my mind._ The phone kept ringing. Finally, Tk heard Kari pick the phone up. "Kari! Listen I-" Tk suddenly heard Kari hang her phone right back up. "Huh...?" Tk sighed. _Great, she's still mad._ Tk dialed Kari again. This time, he got voice mail. "She must have turned her phone off. Damn! What have I done! Oh, this is terrible... I broke my beloved Kari's heart..." Tk tried over and over to reach Kari, every time getting voice mail. "Come on, Kari! How am I supposed to tell you that I really _do_ want to marry you if you won't answer me?" Tk started to get frustrated. "I know!" Tk sent Kari a text message, hoping she would see it the next day. Tk slapped himself on the forehead. "I was such an idiot for ever thinking of saying that to her in the park. I can't believe how stupid I was." Tk tried to call Kari one more time. Once again, it went to voice mail. "Ah, crud... How am I going to get out of this one?"

"Told her, huh?" Patamon said as he flew up.

"Yeah. Oh, I'm such an idiot! Why did I do this!"

"I don't know."

"I acted without thinking. How stupid of me!"

"Yeah. Now, thanks to you, I probably won't get to see Gatomon anymore!"

Tk turned to face Patamon. "What did you say! I'm going through all this, and all you are worried about is not seeing Gatomon anymore! That's so stupid!"

"Hey! My relationship with Gatomon is not stupid!"

"Now's not the time, Patamon. I have a personal crisis right now, and I don't need this."

"Why are you being so rude!"

"Wouldn't it drive you up the wall if you went through something like this with Gatomon?"

"Well..."

"Yeah, see? Look, I'm sorry I said your relationship with Gatomon is stupid. I didn't really mean it. I just... I need some space right now. Can you help me out here?"

"Okay. I hope you and Kari make up."

"Thanks." Tk continued to try and reach Kari.

* * *

In the Digital World, Lobomon was carefully observing what Zhuqiaomon's servants were doing. They had just finished building the wall around the village. Guards were starting to run patrols around the wall at all times. As Zhuqiaomon had ordered, guard towers had been built into the wall. An opening was built into the wall so the digimon could get in and out. It was guarded at all times as well. Two digimon would guard the entrance for three hours, then two more guards would walk up to relieve them.

"What are you doing?" some one asked Lobomon.

Lobomon jerked his head over to see who had caught him. It was a Etemon. "I was uh... making sure the guards followed their orders and changed out."

"I don't recall Zhuqiaomon giving any order like that."

"I was... acting on my own, without orders..." Etemon tilted his head to the side. "You see, uh... I took it upon myself to make sure this place is run right. I feel it's my duty to do so." Lobomon started to sweat.

"Well, that be might noble of ya. Uh huh huh huh! Good to know there's guys like you who are willing to go the extra mile for lord Zhuqiaomon. Keep watchin' 'em and make sure they do it right." The Etemon walked away.

Lobomon breath a sigh of relief. "That was too close. I'll have to more careful in the future. Everything is riding on my shoulders." Lobomon wanted to observe the guards some more, but thought better of it. He had almost gotten caught once, he could not risk getting caught again.

* * *

Tk sat at his desk in his room. He watched his phone intently. Kari still hadn't answered any of Tk's calls or his text message. _Come on, Kari! Answer me already._

Tk got up and started pacing. He wished he had never called Kari to the park. He felt so guilty for what he had done. Tk longed to see her so bad. He missed her charm. Her happy personality. Her beautiful face. _God! Please, help me!_ Tk felt like pulling his hair out. He felt so frustrated. Suddenly, his phone rang. He quickly picked it up and looked to see who was calling. "Joe!" Tk opened his phone. "What do you want, Joe!"

_'What's eating you?'_ Joe's voice came over the phone.

"I'm expecting an important phone call. What do you want!"

_'What's going on with you and Kari?'_

"Nothing! Don't listen to anything anybody tells you!"

_'I heard you two weren't going to go through with it.'_

"Yeah, you heard wrong!"

_'Uh... okay...'_

"Gotta go! Talk to you later, Joe!" Tk slapped his phone shut without even waiting for Joe's reply. "Stupid! What's going on between me and Kari doesn't concern him." Tk paced some more as he waited for Kari to call. _Please, Kari. I love you so much..._ _Please, answer me..._

_

* * *

_

Kari walked out of her apartment. She had stayed inside a long time and couldn't stand it anymore. She needed to get out for a while. She didn't know what she was going to do. Probably just take a walk. Anything was better than lying in bed and sobbing. Kari felt a little better than she did yesterday, but still wasn't herself. The thought of Tk rejecting her was killing her. She was a little hesitant about getting married at first, but got over it very quickly. She couldn't bear the thought of not being with Tk for the rest of her life.

Kari got out of the apartment complex elevator and walked outside. She felt like crap. She kept staring at the ground. She wanted the whole world to just leave her along right now.

"Kari! Wait up!" somebody called from behind.

She looked up to see who it was. _Oh, great. That's just what I need right now..._ Tk was running to catch up with her.

"Kari!" Tk said.

"Want to make my day worse than it already is?" Kari said, barely audible.

"Look, I'm sorry-"

"Sorry doesn't cut it."

"Kari, please, listen to me! Don't shut me out."

Kari turned to leave. She tried her best to tune Tk out. "I got nothing to say to you."

"Kari, I know I have been an idiot."

"You sure got that right."

"I have decided, I do want to go through with the wedding."

Kari looked at Tk over he shoulder. "Is this just a big game to you?"

Tk tilted his head to the side in confusion. "What? What's that supposed to mean."

"Has this whole thing been a big joke to you? A big, freaking joke to cheese me off? Well?"

"How can you say that!"

"First, you call me to the park and tell me you don't want to marry and give me a bunch of lame excuses, and now you're trying to tell me you _do_ want to get married after you said all those things?"

"I'm sorry!"

"Yeah, you are sorry, Takeru."

"Look, I know I hurt your feelings really bad back there, but I wasn't thinking."

"Matt give you some of his crack?"

"What! Why are you doing this?" Kari ignored Tk and started walking away. "Kari, wait up." Tk started walking after her.

"Leave me alone."

"Kari, I love you. You're the most important thing in the world to me!"

"Then why did you tell me what you did yesterday?"

"I made a mistake. I was confused. But I've gotten everything straight now. You have to believe me."

Kari stopped dead in her tracks and turned to face Tk. "So, we're supposed to just go on like nothing ever happened? Is that what you are trying to tell me?" Kari spoke the loudest she had since Tk found her.

"Kari, when couples have trouble, they work together to work it out. This is just a little bump in the road. We can work through it."

"I thought you said we weren't ready."

"I was wrong. About everything."

Kari stared at the ground for a minute. She was trying to process what Tk was telling her. "Tk, I... can't do this..."

"What! Why!"

"You broke my heart. I can't just forget about and go on like nothing ever happened. It hurts too much."

Tk dropped to his knees and grabbed Kari's hand. "Kari, please..." Tears started to form in Tk's eyes.

"I'm sorry, Tk." Kari started to tear up, too. "I just can't." Kari pulled her hand away from Tk. She turned and started walking away again.

Tk quickly stood up. "Kari!" He started after Kari.

"Please, don't follow me..." Kari picked up her pace as she walked away.

Tk stood there, watching her walk away. He didn't know what to do. "What have I done...?" He fell down onto the ground below. "Why!" Tears now fell freely from his eyes. Pain surged through his body from the rough landing, but Tk didn't feel it. All he felt was loss. The woman that made his world go round had been completely destroyed, and it was all his fault.

* * *

Kari wandered around town in tears. Her conversation with Tk earlier hurt her worse then when he told her that he wanted to call the wedding off. So felt so badly. She found a bench to sit down on and took a seat. She pulled her cell phone out and turned it back on. She saw all the times that Tk had tried to call her. She saw that she had a text message from him. She erased it without even bothering to look at it. She looked through her lengthy contacts list looking for a particular number. She finally found it. "Sora... It's Kari. Are you busy? I'm having a real hard time right now. It's complicated. Can I come see you? Thanks, Sora. I'll be there in a couple minutes."

Kari got up and started making her way over to Tai and Sora's apartment. It was quite a way there, but Kari didn't care. Finally, after much walking, she arrived. She knocked on the door.

Sora opened the door. "Hi, Kari."

"Hey..."

"Come in."

Kari quietly walked past Kari and sat down on the couch. "Where's Tai?"

"He's at work. It's just the two of us."

"Good. I would rather talk to you right now."

Sora sat down next to Kari on the couch. "What's wrong?"

"It's me and Tk..."

"Yeah..."

"I think... that Tk and I.. I think that we're..."

"That you're what?"

"I think we're over."

Sora gasped in shock. "What! What happened! I thought you two were doing good."

"We were. At least I thought so."

"Tell me all about it."

Kari took a deep breath. "Yesterday, Tk called me to the park to tell me something." Sora nodded as Kari talked to her. "I wasn't sure what he was going to tell me. I got over there as fast as I could. I got there and found him."

"What did he say?"

"He said..." Kari started to tear up as she spoke.

"Kari, what is it?"

"He told me he wanted to call the wedding off."

"What!"

"You haven't hear yet?"

"No! I had no idea. Did he say why he wanted to call it all off?"

"Yeah, he gave me all these stupid excuses." Kari was angry now more than she was upset. "He said things like, 'We aren't ready!' and all that garbage!"

"My goodness. I can't believe it."

"I slapped him as hard as I could and ran home. Then, he had the audacity to come find me earlier today and talk more crap to me."

"What did he say?"

"He told me he wanted to get married after all." Sora put her hand on her chin and thought about what Kari told her. "It's like he's trying to play a game with me or something. Like I'm a source of entertainment to him or something!"

"He doesn't think of you like that at all."

"Then why is he doing this?"

"He must have had doubts. But he got over them, and wants to be with you again."

"Yeah, he acted like I was just supposed to forget all about what he said to me and go on like it never happened."

"Calm down, Kari."

Kari took a deep breath. "Oh, I feel so bad right now."

"It feels like your whole world is crashing down around you, doesn't it."

Kari cast a surprised glance at Sora. "Yeah."

"I won't say I know exactly how you feel, but I know about where you're coming from. I've been through some tough times in my life, too."

"Tell me, Sora, what should I do? I... still want to be with Tk, but I don't think I can. It's hurts too much."

"Do you love Tk?"

"Of course I do!"

"Does he love you?"

"I..."

"Tell the truth, Kari."

"...Yes... He does..."

"Kari, you have to forgive him. I know he hurt you, but it's only going to hurt you more if you hold onto this."

"But..." Kari couldn't fight the tears. "It's not that simple."

"It's only complicated if you make it that way. You and Tk were made for each other. There will be some hard times, but I know you two can work through them."

Kari sobbed and wiped her eyes as she listened to Sora. "So... I should forgive Tk?"

"Yeah. It will make you feel better."

"It's so hard, though..."

"I know. I never wanted to forgive Matt back when we broke up. But I did."

Kari gave Sora a hug. "Thanks, Sora. You're a real friend. I don't know what I would do without you."

"So, you and Tk are going to make up, right?"

Kari pulled away from Sora. "Yeah. I'm going to call him right now.

Sora smiled. "Atta girl."

* * *

Tk sat lying over his desk. He had his arms crossed and was resting his head on them. He felt so bad over what happened with Kari earlier. He had cried his eyes out, and they were red and bloodshot. He wished he could take it all back. He wanted to hop in a time machine and go back and stop himself. He wished with every fiber of his being that he could some how make it up to her. Tk sat up and reclined in his office chair. He looked up at the ceiling and heaved a heavy sigh. He felt like he had been run over by a herd of Centarumon, chomped up by a Tyrannomon, stepped on by VenomMyotismon, and rammed by a Monochromon. He ran his hands over his face. He wished he could feel normal again. This was terrible. He never felt this bad before. Not even after Angemon was destroyed. Not even when he replaced Davis as leader of the new Digidestined. It was unbearable. Suddenly, his cell phone rang. He look and saw it was Kari. _The heck...?_ Tk flipped the phone open and put it up to his ear. "Hello?"

_'Tk...'_

"Kari?"

_'Come meet me. I'm at the cafe all the Digidestined gather at.'_

Tk didn't get a chance to reply as the line went dead. _Meet at the cafe? What's she going to do?_ Tk reluctantly got up and started making his way to the cafe. The whole way there, Tk couldn't help but wonder what was about to happen. Was Kari going to say she didn't want to see him again? That she just wanted to be friends? Tk arrived at the cafe and walked inside. He looked around and saw Kari sitting at a table in the corner. She waved him over. He walked over towards her, uncertainty overtaking him. He reluctantly sat down across from her. "You... wanted to see me?"

"Yeah... I want to talk. About us."

Tk sighed. "Listen, if you never want to see me again after all that I have done, I understand."

Kari jerked her head back after hearing this. "That's... not what I want to talk about."

"Well, what do you want to talk about?"

"You said that when a couple has a problem, they work it out together."

"Yeah?"

"Well, I... I want us to try and work this thing out."

"You... do?"

"Yes, I do."

"How can you say that after I hurt you?"

"Things might not be quite be the same between us again, but, I can't stand the thought of not being with you for the rest of my life."

"Kari, I... I love you."

"I love you too, Tk."

"So, will you marry me, again?"

Kari ran around the table and embraced Tk in a hug. "Yes, I will!"

Tk returned the hug. "I'm so sorry..."

"I am too. I said some things I shouldn't have back there."

"I promise, I won't ever intentionally say anything to hurt you ever again."

The two of them shared a kiss. "Get a room!" said one of the other people in the cafe.

"Well, I never!" Kari said.

"Yeah, get a life, pal!" Tk said.

The two of the promptly walked out, holding each others' hand.


	13. Battle of the Best

Back again. Thank you all for 3,000 hits. You guys are great.

Disclaimer: I think you have it down pat now. I don't own Digimon.

* * *

A week had passed since the incident between Tk and Kari. Everything had just about gone back to normal. Tai and Sora had finished all their wedding plans, as well as Tk and Kari. They were going to get married on the same day, one wedding service after the other. The big day was but a month away. Mimi had adjusted to life in Japan again, too. Coming back from America was far from an easy transition. Thanks to Mimi's friends, it made things a little easier. The public had even managed to some what accept the digimon living in the Real World. They could finally walk down the street without causing a disturbance. Yolei had fully recovered from the sight of the poor digimon being tortured in Zhuqiaomon's dungeon. She had gone back to her old self once again. Even after her experience, Yolei still got into arguments with Davis constantly. All was going well with the Digidestined. The only problem that remained was Zhuqiaomon. They had yet to put an end to his regime. While all the digimon he had been torturing were free, there was still the chance that he could start it up all over again. That was a chance the Digidestined were not going to take. With Lobomon's help, they would stop Zhuqiaomon's reign of terror once and for all.

"Man, I'm _so_ tired of waiting to go fight that fool, Zhuqiaomon again!" Davis muttered to himself. He sat in his living room watching T.V. He had just gotten home from work. "And, my noodle cart business hasn't taken off yet! I don't get it. Why am I not selling more than I am?" Davis got up and started pacing. "I mean, really! This _is _Japan we're talking about here. Noodles are a way of life. My business should have taken off by now." Davis' rant to himself was cut short, as his cell phone started ringing. He picked it up and answered it. "Hello?"

_'Davis, it's Tai. Izzy's house. Now. All the Digidestined are free right now, and we're going to the Digital World to go stop Zhuqiaomon once and for all.'_

Davis donned an ear to ear smile. "Just the thing I wanted to hear. I'll be there in a flash." Davis hung up. "Veemon! Come on! We're going to go fight Zhuqiaomon!"

Veemon came running out. "Oh boy! At last, some action!"

"You know it, baby!"

* * *

The Digidestined arrived at Izzy's house, eager to go to the Digital World. "Talk about short notice." Yolei said.

"Everybody was available, so we need to go while we have this chance," Tai replied.

"So, this is going to be it for the Zhuqiaomon saga..." Ken said. "I will be more than happy to bring about the end of this adventure."

"You and me both, pal," Cody said.

"What are you two complaining about?" Tk asked. "You guys weren't even there the first time we fought this guy."

"All of you need to quit bellyaching," Tai said. "We really haven't been working on this one all that long. Ogremon and the Dark Masters took a whole lot longer."

"How about we stop talking, and get to work?" Tentomon said.

"Well, sorry!" Mimi said.

"Tentomon's right," Joe said. "Standing around and talking isn't going to accomplish anything. Lets this this show on the road."

Cody walked up to Izzy's computer and opened the the Digiport. "Zhuqiaomon, here we come!" Matt said. All the Digidestined held their Digivices up the the computer screen and were transported to the Digital World.

The Digidestined ended up in Gennai's house. "Greetings, lads."

"Hey there, Gennai," Tai said. "Do we get Azulongmon today?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. He is already on his way to Zhuqiaomon's hideout."

"Azulongmon?" Davis asked. "We kicked Zhuqiaomon's ass last time, what do we need Azulongmon for?"

"There's strength in numbers, Davis," Ken replied. "Besides, we will have to take on all of Zhuqiaomon's servants. We need all the help we can get on this one."

"He's right," Tai told Davis. "I know you want to take him alone, but it's safer if we take Azulongmon with us."

Davis crossed his arms. "We're just going to waste his time."

"You just want to hog all the action," Kari said. "You're so afraid that Azulongmon is going to keep you and Veemon from seeing all the explosions."

"So, what all has Lobomon reported to you, Gennai?" Izzy asked.

"He has sent me several details about the security of the location Zhuqiaomon and his minions have taken," Gennai answered. He walked over to his computer and typed for a moment. A projector displayed images on one of the walls. "This is where they are now."

"That looks like a digimon village," Tk said.

"Very good, Tk. In fact, it is a digimon village."

"What are they doing there?" Patamon asked.

"Zhuqiaomon and his minions attacked the village and ran all the locals."

"That... that... monster!" Kari said.

"That's sinking pretty low," Joe said.

"Indeed," Gennai said. "All the more reason to stop this menace. If he escapes again, more villages are likely to fall to the same fate as this one."

"So, how do we get inside to Zhuqiaomon?" Izzy asked.

Gennai picked up a laser pointer off his desk. "As you can see, there is a wall surrounding the village. Part of the wall extends underground, so you can't just dig underneath it. There are guard posts every 20 yards along the wall, and they have patrols walking around it at all times. There is a gap in the wall to allow entry, but it is also guarded at all times." Gennai pointed the laser at the building in the center of the village. It was the largest of all the buildings in the village. "Zhuqiaomon has taken this building as his personal living quarters. He almost never leaves. You should be able to find him inside.

"Well, looks like we won't be able to use Palmon's vines again this time," Ken said. "Even if we tried it in the middle of the night, they would spot us."

"Indeed," Gennai said.

"So, we can't go under it. We can't go over it. How do we get in?" Tai asked.

"Simple," Gennai answered. "As I said a moment ago, Azulongmon is already on his way to the village. He can start a sneak attack. While all the guards are distracted with him, you can sneak inside the perimeter and go find Zhuqiaomon. Obviously, he has no intention of stopping his activities, so you will have to destroy him."

All of the Digidestined and their digimon jerked their heads to look at Gennai. "Wha...? D-d-did you j-j-just..." Tai stuttered.

"Yes, I did. You have to kill Zhuqiaomon. We have no other choice."

"Can't Azulongmon just lock him up or something?" Davis asked.

"It's not that simple. Even if Zhuqiaomon is imprisoned, he will manage to escape. If he escapes, then he will start his evil empire over again, and all our work will have been for nothing."

Tai couldn't believe his ears. "This is insane! Zhuqiaomon is one of the four guardians of the Digital World. Won't it cause problems if we destroy him?"

"Zhuqiaomon has been neglecting his responsibility as guardian of the Digital World ever since he started this empire of his. Things are already bad. Killing him isn't going to make much of a difference. Besides, once you kill him, he will be purified. He'll be reborn in the Primary Village, and can take over his sector of the Digital World again."

Tai let out a big sigh. "Okay." Tai turned to the rest of the Digidestined. "Do any of you object to this? If you do, it's okay. You can stay behind while we go after Zhuqiaomon." None of the Digidestined said anything. "All right then. I guess we're ready then."

"Maybe we should go over the plan again..." Davis said.

"Did you pay attention to a single word Gennai said?" Yolei asked Davis.

"Yeah! I heard him say that we have to kill Zhuqiaomon."

Yolei put her hands on her hips. "What else?"

"Well... uh..."

Kari laughed. "Vintage Davis." Davis pouted at Kari laughing at him.

"Okay, listen up," Izzy told the team. "This is the last time we're going over this. We're going to transport to the village Zhuqiaomon has taken over. Azulongmon is going to run a distraction so the guards will leave their posts. While they are occupied with Azulongmon, we're going to sneak into the village and go find Zhuqiaomon."

"Then what?" Davis asked.

All the Digidestined, even Veemon, slapped their foreheads. "We take Zhuqiaomon out, what else?"

"Oh... I knew that..."

"Riiiiight..." Tai said. "Gennai, would you set the Digiport to take us to Zhuqiaomon's hideout?"

Gennai typed on his computer. "Okay. You're good to go." The Digidestined held their Digivices up the monitor and were transported.

* * *

The Digidestined emerged from the Digiport. Amazingly, none of them landed in a pile on the ground. "There it is..." Tai said. He was observing the village from a distance using his mini telescope so the team wouldn't get spotted.

"I can't believe you still have that thing," Sora said. "You've had that since our fist adventure years ago."

"Yeah, it's been a big help over the years."

"Well, what do you see?" Gabumon asked.

"Lobomon's reports were on the money. There are guards walking all around that wall. I see the guard posts, too."

"Where's the entrance?" Izzy asked.

"I don't know. It may be on the other side."

"You mean we have to run all the way to the other side of that to get in there?" Mimi asked.

"Not necessarily," Izzy replied. "We could blast a hole in the wall."

"Won't that give us away?" Joe asked.

"Not if Azulongmon is drawing their attention," Ken replied.

"What are we waiting on?" Davis whined.

"We need Azulongmon to get here before we do anything," Tai answered.

"How far is he?"

"I don't know. Why don't you go ask him?"

"Gee, what's eating you?"

"You. Quit rushing. If we rush, then we might make mistakes."

"So, we're supposed to take this slow?"

"No. We need to be timely, but that doesn't mean rushing." Tai looked over and Davis and saw he was tapping his foot. "Davis, slow down!"

"Why does everybody tell me to slow down?"

"You're always in a hurry," Ken replied.

"So?"

Tai and Ken shook their heads. They would never understand why Davis wanted to rush through everything.

Suddenly, Azulongmon showed up. "Ah, the Digidestined."

"Azulongmon! Long time no see!" Davis said.

"Yes. Such a shame it has to be under circumstances like these."

"Did Gennai tell you the plan?" Tai asked Azulongmon.

"He did. I will run a distraction while you get inside and stop Zhuqiaomon."

"Okay then. What are we waiting for?" Davis asked.

Most of the Digidestined slapped their foreheads after hearing Davis. "I will start the attack," Azulongmon said. "Do us proud." With that, the Digital guardian went ahead of the Digidestined to begin the assault.

"Okay, team. Wait for the fireworks to start. Then, we CHARGE!" Tai told the Digidestined. They all pumped their fists. "Lets have the digimon Digivolve now. We need to be at full strength when we go inside that place."

The digimon all Digivolve to their highest forms. They got ready to move on the village.

Azulongmon flew towards the village at top speed. He approached one of the guard towers on the perimeter wall and started attacking. "Lightning Whip!" Azulongmon generated a lightning bolt and swung it around like a whip. He swung it down on top of the guard tower. The tower was destroyed. The digimon that had been inside of it went flying.

"We're under attack!" one of the digimon exclaimed. Suddenly, more digimon came running to try and defend the village from Azulongmon.

"Wow... that's a lot of digimon..." Kari trailed off. "I hope Azulongmon can handle them all."

"Are you kidding?" Cody said. "He backed BlackWarGreymon down. Those digimon over there are nothing."

"I hope so."

"All right. They're good and distracted. Lets go!" Tai ordered.

"Oh yeah. Here we go!" Davis cheered.

The Digidestined quickly ran up to the perimeter wall of the village, careful not to alert the guards to their presence. "Blow the wall," Tai ordered.

"Flower Cannon!" Lillymon fired her attack at the wall and made a hole just big enough for the humans and all their digimon to fit through.

"All right, through the hole!" Tai ordered. "Move it! Move it! Move!"

The Digidestined and their digimon did as they were ordered and ran through the hole. They looked around expecting to meet some kind of resistance. "Where is everybody?" ImperialDramon asked. There was no indication that digimon had ever been inside the village.

"They all must be fighting Azulongmon," Omnimon replied.

"Lobomon said there were over 200 digimon that were still working for Zhuqiaomon," Izzy said. "There's no way that little group outside makes up 200+ digimon."

"It doesn't matter," Tai said. "All that we need to worry about is stopping Zhuqiaomon. Lets go find him."

The Digidestined made their way to the large building in the center of the village. "Something's isn't right here," Cody said as they ran. "We haven't seen a sole since we got in the village."

"Where's all the bad guys?" Davis asked.

"What if we're walking into a trap?" Kari asked.

"Impossible!" Ken said. "They had no way to know we were coming. This was a complete surprise to them."

Finally, the Digidestined reached the building. All the doors were locked shut. "Omnimon..." Tai said.

"Right. Supreme Cannon!" Omnimon blasted the door, opening the way inside.

"Lets get moving," Tai ordered. "This place is pretty big. It might take some time to find Zhuqiaomon. We need to make this fast."

The Digidestined and their digimon all ran inside the building. They ran around inside the interior looking for Zhuqiaomon. The whole time they looked, there was no sign that any other digimon had been there. "Where is this guy? We've searched every inch of this place and still haven't found him." Matt asked.

"He's in here some place," Tai said.

The Digidestined walked through a large doorway. The room was the largest they had encountered so far. "Did he know we were coming and run away?" Sora asked.

Suddenly, the doors behind them slammed shut. Zhuqiaomon and several of his guards dropped down from the ceiling. "Impudent fools!"

"It's a trap!" Omnimon exclaimed.

"You bastard!" Tai cursed.

"You're little friend has failed you," Zhuqiaomon laughed. He threw something across the room.

The Digidestined looked to see what it was. "Is that... Lobomon?" Tk said.

"They caught him!" Ken said.

"He thought he could spy without being detected. What a fool his was." Zhuqiaomon said ever so nonchalantly. "I barely even tortured him and he told me everything."

Lobomon struggled and looked up at the Digidestined. "I'm... sorry that... I failed..." Lobomon fell to the ground and lied very still. He slowly turned into data particles.

"One less problem in the world," Zhuqiaomon said.

"Shut up, you monster!" Mimi shouted.

"Silence! I am royalty! You will not address me in that manner!"

"Royalty my ass!" Matt shouted.

"ENOUGH!" Zhuqiaomon attacked. Omnimon jumped in front of the attack to protect the rest of the team.

"Omnimon!" Tai exclaimed.

"Stop him..." Omnimon silently said.

Zhuqiaomon's guards launched a volley of attacks at the Digidestined. Their digimon ran in front of them to shield them from the barrage. Some of the digimon de-evolved after being hit. Only ImperialDramon, MegaKabuterimon, and Zudomon manage to maintain their forms.

"You are defeated," Zhuqiaomon said triumphantly. "Give up, and I will make your deaths quick and painless."

The Digidestined started to lose hope. Suddenly, one of the walls exploded. Azulongmon flew into the room. He blasted where Zhuqiaomon was standing. Zhuqiaomon moved just in time to avoid the attack. All the servants that had been standing next to Zhuqiaomon were destroyed. "Zhuqiaomon! Stop this nonsense!"

Zhuqiaomon turned to face Azulongmon, surprised. "This does not concern you. Leave, now!"

"It's not a request, Zhuqiaomon! I am _ORDERING_ you! Surrender, and I might spare you if you get lucky."

"Traitor!"

"You are the only traitor!"

Suddenly, ImperialDramon charged Zhuqiaomon. He punched Zhuqiaomon in the face. ImperialDramon held Zhuqiaomon's face in one hand. "Eat it!" ImperialDramon fired the cannon on his arm right in Zhuqiaomon's face. ImperialDramon let of Zhuqiaomon.

"This... isn't... happening!" Zhuqiaomon shouted. He fell down onto the ground.

"That... was for Lobomon," ImperialDramon said.

"Aurora Blast!" Azulongmon fired an energy blast from his eyes and hit Zhuqiaomon. Zhuqiaomon shrieked in pain and was destroyed.

The Digidestined watched as Zhuqiaomon dissolved into data particles. "We did it..." Tai trailed off. He wasn't sure how he felt right now. He was glad they had accomplished their mission and stopped Zhuqiaomon, but he couldn't help but wonder if this could have been avoided. He was torn, uncertain. They had just killed a guardian of the Digital World. Serious repercussions could result from this. Tai only hoped that nothing bad would come from this.

"All right! Score another one for us!" Davis cheered.

"We didn't win this one, Davis. Azulongmon did," Ken said.

"What are you saying? Didn't you see what ImperialDramon did to that guy?"

"Yes, but it was Azulongmon who finished him off."

"But if it wasn't for ImperialDramon, he wouldn't have been able to do that!"

"Davis, Ken, cool it," Tk said. "It doesn't matter who finished him off. All that matters is that he was stopped."

"Thanks for your help, Azulongmon," Tai said.

"While what transpired here pains me, it had to be done," Azulongmon replied. "It was a pleasure to do battle with you."

"Poor Lobomon..." Sora said.

"May he rest in peace," Joe said.

"At least his death wasn't meaningless," Yolei said.

"Yeah. We avenged him," Matt said.

"Take care, Digidestined," Azulongmon said. "I must return to my sector of the Digital World." With that, Azulongmon left the building.

"Come on, guys," Tai said. "Lets go home."

The Digidestined left the village and returned to the T.V. they had entered the area through and returned to the Real World.

* * *

Tai, Agumon, Sora and Biyomon all walked inside their apartment. Agumon and Biyomon were both still recovering from the fight in the Digital World. Tai and Sora were both very tired after the adventure. Tai sat down on the couch and turned on the T.V. "Tai, is... something bothering you?" Sora asked.

Tai ignored Sora and kept watching T.V. "Tai, Sora is talking to you," Agumon said.

"Huh?"

"You act like something is wrong," Sora said. "I've never seen you act so... down after a big victory like this before."

Tai sighed. "That wasn't a victory."

"What? Just because Azulongmon finished off Zhuqiaomon-"

"It's not that."

"Then what is it?"

Tai leaned over and held his head in his hands. "Was all this really necessary?"

Sora tilted her head to the side in confusion. "What? I don't understand."

"Did we really have to kill Zhuqiaomon?"

"What are you talking about?" Biyomon asked Tai.

"It's just... Zhuqiaomon was a big, important figure in the Digital World. Sure, he was doing bad things. But did he really have to die?"

"He's not dead, Tai," Agumon said. "He'll be reborn in the Primary Village."

"I know. But what happens to the Digital World while he is gone? See what I mean?"

"I think I see what you're getting at," Sora said. "You're worried about the Digital World falling out of balance because Zhuqiaomon isn't there to do his part."

"Yeah. That's exactly it."

"Tai, Zhuqiaomon already wasn't doing what he was supposed to," Agumon said. "If the Digital World was going to fall out of balance anyway. By destroying him, he's been purified. Now, he will come back some day and be the digimon that he was supposed to be."

"Agumon is right, Tai," Sora said. "Things will work out all right."

"But what if there was some chance we could have straightened him out?" Tai asked.

"This isn't the movies, Tai," Sora said. "Zhuqiaomon wasn't going to change his ways over night. He would have been rehabilitated for a long time. During that time, he wouldn't have been able to run his sector of the Digital World. By doing what we did, he will be reborn. That will be faster than trying to break him of what he had been doing."

Tai sighed again. "Yeah... I guess you're right. I just... I feel like... I don't know. I feel like... it wasn't our place to stop him. Like, we weren't authorities or something like that."

Sora sat down next to Tai. "Tai, we're the Digidestined. If there's an authority, it's us."

"I know. It's just... I don't know. I just wish there had been another way."

"Wow. That's saying a lot coming from you."

Tai chuckled a little bit. It was the best he had felt all day. "I sure am lucky to have you. I don't know that I could keep going without you." Tai leaned in and gave Sora a kiss.

"Yuck!" Agumon said. "Come on, Biyomon. All this lovey dovey stuff is too much for me."

Sora and Tai laughed as Biyomon and Agumon walked out of the room. "Now, with Zhuqiaomon out of the way, we can finally focus solely on getting married," Sora said.

Tai smiled. "Yeah. It's going to be nice to get back to normal life again."


	14. Preparing for the Big Day

I'm finally back. Sorry for the hold up. I haven't had much time to update here lately. That, I have had a little bit of writers' block. So much for no more long delays. Any way, here's chapter 14.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

* * *

A week had passed since the Digidestined defeated Zhuqiaomon. Things were going well. The team were all eagerly awaiting "The Day".

"The big day is almost here!" Kari said happily.

"I know. I can't believe it." Tk said. The two lovers had found an apartment and moved into it. Both of them were very excited to be out of their parents' houses finally. Even better, they didn't have to do any moving after the wedding.

"Isn't this exciting?" Kari asked Tk

"Yeah. My heart's racing now thinking about it," Tk replied.

"Just think, Tai and Sora, you and me, we're all going to be married... Everything is back to normal in the Digital World. Society has accepted the digimon. Everything is perfect."

"Yeah." Tk wrapped his arms tightly around Kari as they sat together on the couch. Tk started to go over his memories. He remembered back when he wanted so desperately to be with Kari. He wished that he could have told her how he felt back then. But he was too afraid to. If he had done a drastic move like that, it might have caused problems in the group. Especially with Davis. Finally, opportunity came knocking on Tk's door. Tk still remembered that fateful day in the temple on File Island. He and Kari were trapped and lost in the maze in those old ruins. Their feelings for each other finally came out that day. They had been together ever since. Tk still wished that the two of them could have gotten together sooner, but he wouldn't change a thing. He liked the way things were now. Heck, even Davis was supporting them now. If things hadn't worked out like they did, the two of them still might not be together. "I'm so glad that you are mine."

"I'm glad you're mine too." The two of them shared a kiss.

* * *

Izzy sat as his desk typing away at his laptop. He had been there for a couple of hours. Tentomon walked into the room. "I swear, you love that laptop like it was human," Tentomon joked. Izzy didn't pay any attention to Tentomon. He kept on typing. "Izzy? Hello? What, did I hurt your feelings with my joke? If I did, I'm sorry. It was just a joke."

Izzy finally looked up from his laptop. "Huh? We're you talking to me?"

Tentomon chuckled. "No... Nothing..."

"Okay, if you're done then." Izzy turned back to his laptop and started typing again.

"Why are you so testy today?"

"I'm trying to write all of our adventures down."

"Why would you want to do that?"

"I'm hopeful that one day I can turn this all into a novel and sell it."

Tentomon tilted his head to the side. "Say, that sounds like a pretty good idea."

"Good to know someone else thinks so too. I swear, Tentomon, our adventures were like some kind of fictional story. Somebody needs to hear about this."

"What story have you gotten to?"

Izzy looked at his laptop. "I'm most of the way through the Dark Masters saga."

"Cool. Here, how about I help you with this?"

"Good idea, Tentomon. That will speed everything up."

* * *

Tai and Davis were playing around at the local soccer field. It was a matter of days until the wedding, and Tai wanted to use up his last days as a free man wisely. "Hahaha! You can't catch me!" Davis cheered as he ran toward Tai's net.

"You're dreamin'!" Tai said.

"You know in your heart you can't catch me, so why do you even bother!"

While Davis was gloating, Tai managed to sneak up on him. He cut in front of Davis without him knowing and stole the ball. "What was all that about not being able to catch you!" Tai ran off and left Davis in the dust. He kicked the ball in the net with ease. "Aaaaaaaaand that's all, folks! And the winner is... Taichi!"

Davis punched thin air in anger. "Aw, man! When am I ever going to beat you? This makes it 12-0 in favor of you."

Tai placed his hands on his hips triumphantly. "It takes a special effort to beat the master!" Tai had a gleam in his eye as he spoke.

"Yeah, you just wait. I _will_ win one day."

"Until then, I will savor the victory."

"So... getting' close to the big day."

"Yeah."

"Nervous?"

"The Digidestined who bears the Crest of Courage doesn't get nervous!"

"So you're scared silly?"

"What! NO!"

Davis held his hands in front of him in defense. "Whoa! Chill out. I was just trying to support you."

"Yeah... support."

"What's going on with you?"

Tai started laughing. "I'm just messin' with ya!"

Davis crossed his arms. "Dang, you got me again."

"Truth be told, I am sorta nervous. I mean, this is a huge step for me. I can only imagine what Sora is going through."

"Ah, I bet she's uber excited and all. Women look forward to this their whole life."

"Yeah. So, how's your love life?"

Davis laughed sarcastically. "What love life? I don't have a life at all. My 'Davis' Noodle Cart' business hasn't taken off like I hoped it would. My sales are _really_ bad, so I have to work almost all day and all night to make up for it. I'm lucky that I have even been able to go to the Digital World at all." Davis sat down on the ground as he spoke. He was kind of tired from the game he and Tai had just played. "I gotta pick it up some, or I won't be able to pay the rent."

"That's not good..."

"You don't have to tell me." Davis thought for a moment. "Hey, Tai?"

"Hmm?"

"You won't mind if I move in with you if I get kicked out of my apartment, right?"

Tai sweat dropped. "...You won't need to move in with me, because I'm going to help you get your noodle cart business."

Davis jumped up and started shaking Tai's hand. "You're a wonderful human being, Tai. I don't know what I would do without you!"

"Yeah... don't mention it..." Tai said as he worked his hand free from Davis' grasp.

Davis had an ear-to-ear smile on his face. "So, I call you when I need help. Thanks again. I sure owe you one."

Tai was left standing there with his soccer ball, dumbfounded. _How _do_ I get myself into these things?_ He thought to himself.

* * *

"I can't believe you still haven't finished writing your vows!" Mimi said. She and Sora were having lunch.

"The love Tai and I have is no ordinary love," Sora replied. "I'm not sure I can express how much I love him in words, but I am going to try my hardest. Half ass done vows just aren't good enough."

Mimi put her elbows on the table and held her head in her hands. "That's so... touching..." Mimi closed her eyes and thought for a moment. "When will I find love?" she sighed.

"I think I got it."

"Oh! Let me see!" Mimi snatched Sora's vows from her hands and started reading them. About half way through, she started to cry. "Oh... this is so beautiful!"

"Really?"

"Yes! Even if Tai is emotionally dead, he will be moved by these."

Sora sat back in her chair. "Good. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to finish those in time."

"Tai had better put this much work into his vows! He doesn't deserve you."

Sora started thinking of Tai. _Just a few more days, and my dream will come true._

_

* * *

_

I know, this one was pretty much a filler chapter, and short at that. Next chapter will be longer and more important. So, please R&R. See you next time._  
_


	15. All is Fair in Love and War

Once again, sorry for the delayed update. College is eating up all my time. Next update might come a little sooner, hopefully. I can't make any promises, though. Without further ado, here's chapter 15.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

* * *

Gennai emerged from one of the TV portals. He landed hard on the ground. "Now I see why the Digidestined always complain about that..." He got up and dusted himself off. He then took a look around the area he had landed in. "Blast! Went to the wrong area. It's so easy for the Digidestined, how come it's not easy for me? I've only lived in the Digital World for... well... a very, very long time. I _should _know my way around by now." Gennai pulled out a laptop. He started up a mapping program and glanced over it. "Oh well. It's not too far to where I need to go. I'll just walk." Gennai put his laptop back up and started walking.

Why was ever so hermit like Gennai out of his house? Here's why.

* * *

_Gennai sat in his house at his computer, typing away like mad. Suddenly, a message popped up. "What's this?" Gennai opened the message. It was from the Dorumon who had come to him before._

_'Gennai! It's your friend, Dorumon. We need you here in Zhuqiaomon's old sector pronto! It's an emergency!'_

_Gennai scratched his head. "What could it be this time?" he said aloud. He got up from his desk and activated this Digiport in his house and _attempted_ to go to the sector that used to be Zhuqiaomon's._

_

* * *

_

Gennai quietly walked along, still wondering what was so important that he had to come immediately. Finally, he reached a small village. He had to pass through it on the way to Zhuqiaomon's sector. As he made his way through, the doors to one of the houses opened and out came Dorumon. "Hurray! You got my message!"

Gennai was surprised to see Dorumon here. "Fancy meeting you here. What's wrong this time? Zhuqiaomon is gone. He can't continue his reign of terror. So what is going on?"

"Zhuqiaomon being gone IS the problem."

* * *

Agumon laid half asleep on the couch in Tai and Sora's apartment. Tai and Sora were out and Biyomon was in the Digital World visiting some old friends, so Agumon decided it would be a good time to take a nap. Agumon suddenly started to feel strange as he was lying on the couch. He couldn't figure out why. Suddenly, his thoughts turned to the Digital World. Agumon started seeing visions of places he had been to in the Digital World. He went through a vast array of visions before coming to Zhuqiaomon. Agumon suddenly woke up. He jerked up from his former position on the couch and started looking around. "Something is wrong in the Digital World..." he said, barely audible. Agumon got off the couch and started pacing. His mind started to race. "I need to get to the Digital World. But I need somebody to open the Digiport for me." Suddenly, as if it were an answered prayer, Tai and Sora came back. "Guys!" Agumon said as he ran up to them.

"Hey, Agumon," Tai said.

"You've gotta get me inside the Digital World! Something is wrong!"

"What? What are you talking about?" Sora asked.

"I have never told anybody, but I have a bond to the Digital World. When something is wrong, I can sense it."

"What's wrong?" Tai asked.

"I don't know. That's why I need to get to the Digital World right now."

"Okay, okay! Come on, lets go see Tk and Kari. They can open the Digiport. We need to go get Biyomon back anyway."

The tiro left and started heading for Tk and Kari's apartment. Agumon ran all the way. Tai and Sora struggled to keep up. "I don't think I have ever seen Agumon move that fast before," Tai said as he and Sora ran after Agumon.

"Something _bad_ must be happening in the Digital World then," Sora said.

Finally, they reached Tk and Kari's apartment. Tai knocked on the door. "Be there! Be there! Be there! Be there!" Agumon said very quickly.

Tk opened the door. "Tai, Sora. Nice to see you," he said. Agumon bolted past Tk. "What's with him?"

"He is sensing something in the Digital World," Sora answered.

"Huh?" Tk asked, confused.

"We'll explain later. We need you to open the Digiport for us stat," Tai said.

"Uh... okay..." Tk replied. He let Tai and Sora inside and led them to the computer.

"What's up?" Kari said as she walked up.

"There seems to be an emergency in the Digital World," Sora answered.

Patamon and Gatomon suddenly ran up. "Did you say there's an emergency in the Digital World?" they said in unison.

"Yeah," Agumon said. "There's something not right."

"Well, lets go see what it is," Tk said.

"No. I'm going alone," Agumon said.

"You're crazy, Agumon," Tai said. "As if we're going to let you go in there by yourself."

"It's dangerous!"

"So were the fights with Zhuqiaomon, and that didn't stop us."

Agumon sighed. "Fine. Just hurry up."

Tk held his D-3 up to the computer screen and opened the Digiport. The four humans and their digimon were transported into the Digital World.

* * *

The The four humans and their digimon landed in the Digital World. "Well, Agumon?" Tai asked.

"There's something going on. I can feel it," Agumon replied.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Tk asked. "All we have to go on here is Agumon saying he senses something. I would like something more to go on here."

"It's like... ya know? It's like... you know?" Agumon replied.

The rest of the gang scratched the back of their heads. "Agumon, can you uh... make some... you know, sense?"

Agumon started to get angry. "You guys don't believe me that something is wrong, do you? You haven't believed me from the start!"

"Calm down, Agumon," Tai said.

"No! I'm tired of everybody undermining me! There is something wrong, damnit!"

"Nobody is undermining you, Agumon," Biyomon said. "Don't blow a gasket. Nobody said you were lying or anything like that."

"Yeah. Gezz," Gatomon said. "Take a chill pill or something."

Agumon crossed his arms and humphed. He faced away from the others, a scowl on his face. "Agumon, stop it!" Tai demanded. "We're not saying you're wrong, we just want more of a direction. All we have to go on is you saying there's something wrong. We don't know where it is or anything like that."

"Yeah, I didn't intend to offend," Tk said.

Agumon heaved a heavy sigh. "Fine."

"Atta boy," Tai said. "Now, we have to figure out what would make Agumon's Spider Sense tingle like that."

"Why don't we contact Gennai?" Kari asked. "If anybody knows what is going on the Digital World, it's Gennai."

"That's my girl!" Tk said, getting his D Terminal out of his pocket. He typed a message on it. "Okay, firing missile."

"Waiting game again. Fun," Patamon said.

"That's something I expected to hear from Davis," Kari said.

Patamon's eyes got big. "You're right! Oh no! I'm turning into Davis!"

Tk grabbed Patamon out of the air. "No you're not!" Tk slapped Patamon. "Snap out of it!"

Tai hunched over laughing. "I... can't... stop... laughing..."

"That's just what we need, another Davis," Sora chuckled.

The gang's laughter at Patamon's expense was cut short as Tk's D Terminal went off. "Got a reply from Gennai."

"What's it say?" Kari asked.

"It's a set of coordinates."

"Huh? Here, let me see," Tai said. He glanced over Tk's shoulder at the D Terminal screen. "Hey... That's the continent Zhuqiaomon used to rule..."

"You don't think..." Sora started.

"_More_ trouble with Zhuqiaomon?" Gatomon asked.

"I don't see how," Biyomon said. "ImperialDramon killed him."

"Maybe some of his old servants are causing trouble?" Kari said.

"See! I told you guys something was wrong!" Agumon said.

"Everybody chill!" Tai said. "I'm sure we'll figure out what's going on soon enough." Tai turned to face Agumon. "Agumon, we owe you an apology for doubting your Spider Sense. Now, lets go to these coordinates Gennai sent us and see if we can find out what's going on."

"Why would Gennai send us coordinates instead of telling us to come to his house?" Sora asked.

"I don't know. But I have a feeling we'll find out when we get there." Tai led the team to the closest TV. The team held their Digivices up to the TV and transported themselves to the coordinates that were sent to them.

* * *

The team arrived at the coordinates sent to them by Gennai. To their surprise, he was waiting for them there. "Not that I'm complaining, but I am surprised to see you all here in the Digital World," Gennai said.

"Likewise, I'm shocked you would ever leave your house," Tai replied.

"Gennai! What's happening!" Agumon asked. "I have been sensing terrible things all day."

"Have you now?" Gennai asked. "How?"

"I have uh... a bond with the Digital World. I've had it ever since I was very young. But that's beside the point. What's wrong?"

"It has to do with Zhuqiaomon..."

"Has he already been reborn?" Patamon asked.

"No. The problem doesn't have to do with Zhuqiaomon directly."

"Well, what's the deal?" Tai asked.

"While most of this continent is more than happy to be free from Zhuqiaomon, some of the other residents here want him back."

There was silence among the team for a moment. "WHAT!" the team all shouted in unison.

"You heard me right..." Gennai said as he placed his right hand over his ear because of the ringing. "Zhuqiaomon may have been doing bad things, but he was keeping the place in order. He kept things in line. And now, with him gone, things are falling apart. Without him here to govern his place of responsibility, things are going quite badly. Some of the digimon here think the only way to get things back into order is to bring Zhuqiaomon back."

The Digidestined's mouths were on the ground. "That's... unbelievable..." Tk said. "I never would have thought _anybody_ would miss that guy."

"Now, you have two sides arguing with one another. You have those who want Zhuqiaomon back, and those who like it now with him gone," Gennai said. "The two sides are starting to become hostile against each other. There have been reports of raids. Fights. Threats. It's not very pretty."

"This is ludicrous!" Tai said. "I mean, I understand where the Zhuqiaomon supporters are coming from, but they're being stupid! How could they want somebody as corrupt as Zhuqiaomon back!"

"Over time, you get used to who is in charge, even if they are bad," Sora said.

"That's... terrible..." Kari said.

"What do we do?" Tk asked. "We can't let this go on."

"Yeah, but we can't use force to stop them," Sora said. "It would be like we were stooping to Zhuqiaomon's level."

"How else are we supposed to stop them? It's not like we can go up to them and politely say, 'Please don't start fighting.'"

"What if they turn on us?" Biyomon asked. "If they attack us, we'll have to defend ourselves. Word will spread about it, and it will make the Digidestined look bad. We're the good guys. We can't-"

"Nobody panic!" Tai said. "We've overcome more difficult problems in the past. We'll figure out how to fix this peacefully."

"But how?" Kari asked. "Every solution has another obstacle."

"There is a way to end this peacefully," Gennai said.

"Yeah?" Tai asked.

"It's a long shot, and it's dangerous."

"Then it sounds like it's right up our alley."

"Zhuqiaomon is being reborn in the Primary Village here."

"Are you saying we need to hatch his Digiegg and allow him to resume his position?" Tk asked. "We would be taking sides if we did that!"

"Yeah, we have to remain impartial," Biyomon said.

"Let me finish," Gennai said. "If Zhuqiaomon were to come back and promise he was going to straighten up and fly right, it would more than likely please his opposition."

"Sounds a little iffy..." Sora said.

"Like I said, it's risky and a long shot."

"And it's the only other option we have," Tai said. "But, if we hatch Zhuqiaomon's egg, won't he be just a little baby digimon?"

"Yes. Under normal circumstances."

"You have a plan?" Tk asked.

"Remember UlforceVeeDramon? The digimon in the old ruins on File Island that restored your crests?"

"Yeah, what about him?" Tai asked.

"If you take Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg to him, he can restore Zhuqiaomon to normal."

"And since he went through the rebirth process, he will have been purified," Tk said.

"Precisely."

"Great!" Tai said. "I don't know if I ever told you guys, but I love it when a plan comes together." Tai had a smile on his face going from ear to ear. "Where's the Primary Village here?"

Gennai took out his laptop. He started his map program and showed it to the team. "It's in this sector." Gennai closed the laptop. "You need to hurry. Hatred towards Zhuqiaomon knows no bounds. I've heard several rumors about digimon planning to go to the Primary Village and destroy Zhuqiaomon's egg.

"The nerve!" Agumon said.

"As I said, hatred towards Zhuqiaomon knows no bounds after all the terrible things he did before. The communities' reaction is only natural. You had best be on your way. The sooner you restore Zhuqiaomon, the better."

"Come on, team!" Tai said. "Lets get to that village before somebody else does. We don't have any time to lose." The Digidestined returned to the TV and activated it. They set course for the Primary Village.

* * *

There you go. I hope you liked it. Did you like the little Spiderman reference? In case anybody is confused, Zhuqiaomon ruled on a continent in the Digital World that the Digidestined had never been to before. It has its own Primary Village, not the one on File Island. Like always, please R&R. See you next time!


	16. Public Unrest

Happy Friday! I managed to scrape some time together so I could write the next chapter. Here it is. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

* * *

Tai and the others emerged from the TV portal. They started walking very quickly in the direction of the Primary Village. "I thought the Primary Village on File Island was the only one in the whole Digital World," Tk said.

"Of course not," Agumon said. "Think about it for a minute. How did these other continents get their digimon populations if that was the only Primary Village?"

"Huh. I never thought of that before."

"Okay, remember, guys, we can't get into any fights," Tai told the team. "All we can do is defend our position against anybody who has a problem with us."

The team nodded at Tai. They kept walking in search of the village. "You think we can find UlforceVeeDramon without Izzy here?" Kari asked.

"Who says we have to go in there without him?" Tai said. "If push comes to shove, we can call him in to come help us find UlforceVeeDramon in those old ruins."

After quite a bit of walking, the team finally entered the village. "So... this is it," Patamon said.

"Yeah," Biyomon said. "Now all we have to do is find Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg.

The team took a look around the village. There were easily over 500 Digieggs inside. "Is that all?" Gatomon said sarcastically.

"Look at all those eggs..." Sora said.

"Zhuqiaomon's enemies will be here before we find his Digiegg in this place," Agumon said.

"Standing here gawking isn't going to help us," Tai said. "We better start looking."

"What do we know what to look for?" Kari asked her brother. "Any one of these Digieggs could be Zhuqiaomon's!"

"And those digimon could be coming!" Biyomon said.

"Wait," Tk said. "Elecmon guards the Primary Village back on File Island. If File Island's Primary Village has a guardian, then this one should as well."

"That's right!" Tai said. "Okay, Tk, you and Patamon are coming with me. We're going to go look for the guardian of this Primary Village. Sora, Kari, Biyomon, Gatomon, I want you to start looking through all of these Digieggs. Everybody move fast. We might not have much time!"

"You got it!" Tk said. He and Patamon went with Tai and Agumon to try and find the guardian.

"Ugh! That's just like Tai!" Sora said.

Kari tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean ?"

"The only reason he left you and I here to sift through all these Digieggs is because he doesn't want to."

"What did you expect from my lazy brother?" Kari joked. Biyomon and Gatomon laughed at Kari's comment.

Sora laughed as well as she started to look through all the stone cribs with the Digieggs in them. "He could have sent Tk and Patamon and stayed behind to help us."

Kari started looking through the big stone cribs as well. "Tai is the leader of the Digidestined, Sora. He is the one who needs to speak to the guardian of this village."

Sora sighed. "I guess you're right... I'm just stressed."

"What's stressing you, Sora?" Biyomon asked her partner.

"It's just... I thought we were done with all this crud with Zhuqiaomon. I'm so tired of going through hell on earth because of him."

"Tell me about it," Gatomon said. "I was tired of Zhuqiaomon before we fought him the first time. I'm ready for this all to be over with."

"Count me in on that!" Biyomon added.

"Don't worry, fellas," Kari said. "We'll find Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg and get him restored, and that will be the end of it. Then, we can focus on getting married..." Kari had a gleam in her eye when she mentioned the upcoming wedding.

"You really think the digimon citizens will accept Zhuqiaomon taking back over?" Sora asked.

"I don't know. But we have to do this. We don't have any other choice."

"I guess so..."

The two girls and their digimon quietly searched the village for any sign of Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg. Several minutes had passed. Tk and Tai had not returned yet. Sora and Kari started to feel like there was no hope. It was almost impossible to tell the Digieggs apart. Aside for different patterns on the surface of the eggs, they all looked the same and were all the same size. "Tk and Tai sure have been gone for a long time," Gatomon said. "I wonder what's keeping them?"

"They're probably just having a hard time finding the guardian of this village," Kari said. She wasn't sure she believed herself. It had been a very long time since Tk and Tai went to look for the guardian and they hadn't come back yet. What if they had been ambushed by the opposition of Zhuqiaomon? Were they okay? What if Tk had been hurt?

"Hello? Earth to Kari?" Sora said.

"Huh?" Kari said as she snapped back to her senses.

"You looked like you had seen a ghost and I was asking you if you were okay."

"Y-yeah... I'm fine..."

"Kari?" Gatomon said. "Are you telling the truth?"

Kari sighed. "You know me all to well, Gatomon."

"Something bothering you?" Sora asked.

"I... I'm worried about Tk. He and Tai have been gone forever."

"You don't need to worry about Tai and Tk. They know how to take care of themselves. They aren't leaders for nothing."

Sora's words helped Kari calm down some. "You're right. How stupid of me to think anything bad would ever happen to my boys."

"You really love Tk, don't you?"

"Yeah... I really do..." Kari started day-dreaming as she spoke. "My life would suck without Tk."

"I know what you mean. I might give Tai a hard time some times, but I love him so much."

"Ah, that's so sweet," Biyomon said.

"Well, we should get back to looking for Zhuqiaomon," Sora said.

"Yeah. We don't have much time," Kari said.

Suddenly, Tai and Tk showed up. "Kari! Sora!" Tai said as he and Tk ran up.

"Tai! You're back!" Sora said.

"Yeah, and we found the guardian!"

Following behind Tai and Tk was a Renamon. "So, you are the famous Digidestined," said the Renamon.

"That's us!" Biyomon said.

"I have heard many legends about you. I must say, I am honored to meet you."

"Thank you," Tai said. "Now, we need your help. Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg is some where in this village. We don't know how to find him. Can you help us?"

"Yes. Follow me." Renamon led the Digidestined halfway across the village. "Man, we were looking in the completely wrong place," Sora said.

They walked past an area where most of the Digieggs had hatched. In their place were big stone cribs with baby digimon inside them. "Awww... they're so cute!" Kari said. Tai and Tk rolled their eyes.

The team kept walking. They entered an area of the village where there were very few Digieggs. "Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg is over here," Renamon said. She led them up to one of the eggs. This Digiegg was different that the others. It had a picture of a flame on its surface.

"That was easy," Tk said.

Tai quickly put his hand over Tk's mouth. "Shut up! Are you _trying_ to jinx us?"

Suddenly, there was an explosion near the Digidestined. "Ah! What's going on?" Kari asked.

The smoke from the explosion cleared, revealing several Champion and Ultimate level digimon. A MetalTyrnannomon stepped to the front of the group of the digimon. "We will _not_ allow you to return us to our life of misery!"

"Oh crap! Not good!" Patamon said.

"Turn Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg over to us, or suffer the consequences," demanded the MetalTyrannomon.

"The Digidestined don't take orders from scoundrels!" Tai said. "You have 60 seconds to get out of here, or _you_ can suffer the consequences."

"I can see you won't be reasoned with. I didn't want to have to destroy you, but you leave us all no other choice."

"Leave my village at once!" said Renamon stepping forward.

"Huh? What are you trying to do? Get yourself killed?" Tk asked Renamon.

"I _am _the guardian of this village. They are threatening one of my village's eggs. Naturally, I can't let them do any harm to that Digiegg."

"Maybe you didn't notice, but there are about 10 digimon over there that want to kill us," Tai said.

"It makes no difference if there are 10 or 100. It's my duty to defend this village. Besides, I am much stronger than I look. Renamon, Digivolve to... Kyubimon!" Kyubimon slowly walked up to MetalTyrannomon. "Last chance; out of my village!"

"Not until I have that Digiegg in my possession," MetalTyrannomon replied.

"Quick, lets make a break for it with Zhuqiaomon's egg while she has them distracted," Tk said.

"What! Are you crazy?" Kari asked. "We can't leave her here to fight all those digimon alone!"

"Yeah, and we can't engage any of those digimon either," Patamon said.

"Kari's right," Tai said. "We aren't leaving her here to die. Agumon!"

Agumon looked at Tai, uncertainty evident in his eyes. "Are you sure?"

"We don't have to kill them. Just run them off. Quick, Digivolve."

"Okay... Agumon, Warp Digivolve to... WarGreymon!" WarGreymon ran up next to Kyubimon. "There doesn't have to be any bloodshed here."

MetalTyrannomon's accomplices backed off after seeing WarGreymon. "You cowards! Do you want to go back to a life of being tortured by Zhuqiaomon?" Most of the accomplices turned tail and ran off. Only three digimon, a Gargomon, DeviDramon, and MegaSeaDramon remained to back up MetalTyrannomon.

"What's the matter, hotshot?" Tai taunted.

"Help me, or I'll kill you myself!" MetalTyrannomon threatened. The other the digimon came forward and formed a line with him.

Patamon, Biyomon, and Gatomon all Digivolved and joined up with Kyubimon and WarGreymon. "I'm going to be nice and give you one more chance to get the hell out of here," Tai shouted at MetalTyrannomon. "Take it or leave it."

"I would rather die a thousand deaths!"

"You got it. Attack!"

Sora, Tk and Kari all started staring at Tai. "W-what?" Tk lolled. The digimon were equally as confused.

"I said attack," Tai demanded, shaking his fist. "Attack, dammit!"

MetalTyrannomon and his accomplices charged WarGreymon and the others while they were distracted. They saw the charge coming and got out of the way just in time. "Tai, we can't attack them!" WarGreymon said.

"Just do it! Fight!"

WarGreymon reluctantly did as Tai ordered. "Terra force!" WarGreymon formed flame energy attack in his hands. He launched it at MetalTyrannomon, who dodged the attack.

"You dare to attack a peaceful group of digimon!" MetalTyrannomon said. "People are going to hear about this!"

"More like people are going to hear how you attacked the guardian of the Primary Village of the Continent of Gaia!" Tai taunted. "Wait till word about that gets around!"

Tai's words deeply angered MetalTyrannomon. Instead of attacking the digimon, he charged the Digidestined. "Arrogant fools!"

WarGreymon grabbed his shield off his back. He jumped in front of MetalTyrannomon and kept him from getting to the Digidestined. "If you so much as cause a hair to be out of place on any of them, I will escort you to hell myself!" WarGreymon shoved MetalTyrannomon and made him stumble backward. He charged MetalTyrannomon and slashed him with his claws. WarGreymon's claws, or Dramon Killers, proved to be too much for MetalTyrannomon's armor to handle. WarGreymon cut deep gashes in MetalTyrannomon.

MetalTyrannomon held himself where WarGreymon cut him. "This isn't over!" MetalTyrannomon headbutted WarGreymon and knocked him off balance. MetalTyrannomon took this opportunity and ran off as fast as he could.

Meanwhile, the other digimon were still fighting MetalTyrannomon's accomplices. AngeWomon had defeated the DeviDramon. MagnaAngemon and Garudamon were fighting with MegaSeaDramon while Kyubimon was facing off with Gargomon.

"You're going to regret coming to my village!" Kyubimon taunted. "Fox Tail Inferno!" Kyubimon made all of her tails stand up. The flames burning on each tail formed an energy blast. Gargomon crossed his arms in front of himself to try and block the attack. Kyubimon's attack did some damage, but Gargomon still faced off with her.

"Thunder Javelin!" MegaSeaDramon fired an attack from the blade on his nose at Garudamon. She used her wings to block the attack. While MegaSeaDramon was attacking Garudamon, MagnaAngemon ran and got behind MegaSeaDramon.

"Wing Blade!"

"Excalibur!"

Garudamon and MagnaAngemon attacked MegaSeaDramon from both directions. The combination of their attacks destroyed MegaSeaDramon.

All that was left now was Gargomon. He and Kyubimon were still fighting. Gargomon was shooting the gigantic cannons on his arms, making Kyubimon jump around to dodge the incoming fire. Gargomon fired another burst. Kyubimon jumped straight up in the air to avoid it. Gargomon jumped up after her. He swung and hit her with his massive cannons. Kyubimon fell back down to the ground. Gargomon landed and hit Kyubimon again. Gargomon kept hitting her over and over again. Kyubimon couldn't get up because Gargomon kept beating her. Suddenly, AngeWomon flew in and punched Gargomon. AngeWomon stood in between Kyubimon and Gargomon so he couldn't get to her.

"Terra Force!" WarGreymon sneak attacked Gargomon. WarGreymon killed Gargomon immediately.

"Kyubimon!" AngeWomon said. AngeWomon got down on one knee and looked to make sure Kyubimon was all right. WarGreymon, MagnaAngemon, and Garudamon looked around to make sure there weren't anymore hostile digimon around. While they were looking, Kyubimon de-evolved back in Renamon.

"AngeWomon!" Kari shouted. "Is she going to be okay?"

"I don't-" AngeWomon started. Renamon moaned and interrupted her.

"She's gonna die!"Sora said. "Who will watch after all the Digieggs?"

MagnaAngemon stepped forward. "Antidote." A bright light engulfed Renamon. Suddenly, most of her wounds were healed. "That should help."

Renamon's eyes slowly opened. "...I feel... weak..."

"Don't worry, were here to help," AngeWomon said. The other three digimon secured the area and de-evolved.

"Tai, why did you order our digimon partners to attack them?" Sora asked, very angry.

"She was going to take on all those digimon alone," Tai said, pointing to the injured Renamon. "What you call an 'unjustified attack', I call 'defending the innocent'. If we hadn't stopped those guys, she would be dead right now, and there wouldn't be anybody around to take care of all of these Digieggs. There was nothing wrong with what we did here."

Sora heaved an angry sigh. "You're so hard headed. Now we will look like the bad guys!"

"I don't want to sound like I'm taking sides, but Tai is actually right," Tk said. "We had to defend Renamon."

"Yeah, Sora," said Kari. "We really would have been the bad guys if we had stayed out of it."

"But- but-" Sora stuttered. "I... I guess you guys are right. I just have a bad feeling about all of this."

AngeWomon suddenly de-evolved back into Gatomon. "Renamon will be fine after she rests for a while."

"Great!" Tk said cheerfully. "Now, let's take this Digiegg and get to File Island so we can end this big mess."

"We can't leave yet!" Biyomon said.

"Why not?"

"Take a look around you." Tk and the rest of the team looked around. "See all these Digieggs and baby digimon? Renamon is in no condition to take care of them all. Somebody needs to stay here and watch after the village until Renamon is back on her feet."

"What!" Tk shouted. "No way am I sticking around here and taking care of a bunch of Digieggs and babies! Besides, if we stay here, we will be sitting ducks for MetalTyrannomon."

"Yeah, well somebody has to stay here," Kari said sternly. "I'm not leaving this village knowing that there isn't anybody here to keep it."

"Stay clam, fellas!" Tai said. "I know a way we can watch the village and go to File Island all at the same time." The rest of the team looked at him, waiting for him to tell them what his solution was. "_We _need to go to File Island, right? And somebody has to stay here and watch the village, right? Well, I know two people would would just _love_ to watch after all these Digieggs and baby digimon."

"Yolei and and Mimi!" Kari said.

"Yup. You guessed it. And, we can call in Izzy to help us navigate that maze down in the ruins."

Sora walked up to Tai and ran her hands through his very tall hair. "That's my Taichi!" She pecked him on the cheek.

* * *

"Oh! Look at all the cute little babies!" Mimi yelled.

'I could hear her from a mile away!' Tai jokingly whispered to Tk. The two of them chuckled quietly.

"I've always wanted to run the Primary Village for a day!" Yolei cheerfully said.

"Okay, girls," Tai said. "Do your thing. We've gotta go to File Island."

Mimi picked up a Punimon. "'Kay! You guys take care!" Mimi said absentmindedly.

"Thank you for your help..." Renamon told Tai and the others.

"You bet!" Tai turned to Izzy. "You still have that old map from six years ago?"

Izzy looked at Tai with a pissed off expression. "Is that a trick question?'

"Okay then! Let's get this show on the road."

The team made their way to the closest TV portal. "Why is it we always find ourselves going back to File Island?" Tentomon said. "Seems like every time, we have to go back there."

"To be honest, I'm glad to be going back to some place familiar," Sora said. "Everything here on Gaia is so foreign to me."

The Digidestined reached the TV portal. "He we go now!" Tai said. The Digidestined activated the portal and transported themselves to File Island.

* * *

In case you're wondering, Gaia is the continent Zhuqiaomon ruled. Now, if you would press that little review button over there. Thanks. Till next time!


	17. Return of the Golden Boy

Greetings, friends. I come to you on this one year anniversary of the posting of _Ghosts of Years Past._ This also makes 12 consecutive months that I have been posting. Thanks to all of you who have followed my stories. You guys are what keeps me going.

Disclaimer: I don't own digimon.

* * *

Tai and the others emerged from the TV portal. They took a look around the area. This place held so many memories for the Digidestined. "File Island..." Tk said. "I never get tired of coming here."

"Of all the places we have been to in the Digital World, none of them compare to this place," Patamon said.

Izzy had flash backs as he looked around. He remembered back to the first adventure in the Digital World. Devimon had tricked the Digidestined at that fake mansion and separated them. Izzy and Tentomon landed here, near the ancient temple. "Ah, the old days... I miss those times."

"What? You miss that time?" Tai asked. "Devimon split us all up. That was one of the most scary times of my life. I didn't know where the rest of the team was. I didn't know if everything was going to work out okay. I didn't know if Sora was alright. I didn't know if I was ever going to see Kari again."

"It's okay, Tai!" Sora said. "Everything worked out in the end."

Tai shook his head. "Yeah. You're right. I just got caught up in the moment." Tai noticed everybody else was staring at him. "Well, uh... how about we get on with our mission?"

"Okay, just don't get all wacky like that on us again!" Agumon jokingly said.

The team started heading towards the temple. It was a short walk from where they had entered the island from. "Do you ever think the Digital World and the Real World will ever be, you know, connected?" Kari suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?" Gatomon asked.

"Well, take a look at the Digital World and the Real World. We are pretty much the only one's from the Real World that know about the Digital World. And not many digimon know about the Real World. The two worlds are linked together. So, shouldn't they be more... united or something like that?"

"Stop and think about something for a minute," Izzy said. "The Digidestined are the only people who can enter the Digital World. No other human currently has a way to come here."

"But what if some day, the rest of humanity finds out about the Digital World?"

"She has a point," Tk said. "The rest of the world will find out about the Digital World eventually. It's only a matter of time."

"Somebody will have to be like an ambassador," Izzy said.

"Someday, I will be the one who unites the two worlds," Tai said, a gleam in his eye.

"You? The ambassador to the Digital World?" Sora chuckled.

"What?"

"It's just, you're not exactly the ideal person to take a position like that."

"How do you figure?"

"You're a little to quick to take aggressive action."

"Oh really? Remember how slow I took the situation with Zhuqiaomon at first?"

"Well..."

"Uh-huh! See! I could be the first ambassador to the Digital World."

"I know you could do it!" Kari praised her brother.

Tai donned an ear to ear smile. He felt really good about himself right now. "Well... anyway... we need to get back to our mission. Izzy, if you would please find us the old ruins."

Izzy started typing away on his laptop. "You got it."

* * *

Mimi was on cloud nine in the Primary Village. "So many cute digimon babies! I could just hug 'em all and eat 'em all up!"

"You think that crazy plan of Tai's is going to work?" Palmon asked.

"I don't know," Yolei said. "This is Tai we are talking about here. If anybody can pull off a hair-brained plan like this, it's Tai."

"I could care less about any of that!" Mimi cheerfully said.

Hawkmon, Palmon and Yolei all laughed at their comrade. "That's pretty funny, I don't care who you are," Hawkmon chuckled.

The two girls and their digimon went on about caring for the digimon in the village while Renamon recovered from the earlier attack. Little did they know, somebody was watching from afar.

* * *

Izzy had led the Digidestined to the ruins. "Here we are."

"Okay, that's the first step," Tai said. All that's left now is to find UlforceVeeDramon and get him to restore Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg."

"Not to worry. I recorded the route to UlforceVeeDramon last time we were here. We should have no trouble getting there."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Tk said. The Digidestined entered the old ruins and started making their way to UlforceVeeDramon.

* * *

Back in the village, Renamon had mostly recovered from the battle and was back on her feet. "I cannot convey enough gratitude to you for doing this for me."

"Don't mention it," Yolei said. "We're the Digidestined. It's what we do."

"Yup! I couldn't live myself if I knew all these poor digimon babies were here with no-one to take care of them," Mimi said.

"Besides, it was so boring back home," Palmon said.

Suddenly, MetalTyrannomon jumped in on the group. "Surrender!"

"AHHH!" Yolei and Mimi screamed in unison.

"What...?" MetalTyrannomon said. "Where did the other humans go? And where is that fool, Zhuqiaomon?"

Mimi suddenly switched from being scared silly to being incredibly angry. "Ohhhh... how dare you come in here and scare us all like that! You scared all the babies! I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS FOR DOING THAT!"

"Ha! You and what army?" MetalTyrannomon scoffed. "Just hand over Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg, and maybe I will let you live."

"What?" Yolei said. "Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg? What would he want with that?"

"Don't play dumb with me! I know those other fools are around here somewhere with that egg. Now hand it over before I kill you all!"

"Get out... owww..." Renamon said.

"Didn't get enough last time, eh? I can fix that!"

"Palmon! You have to protect her!" Mimi shrieked.

"You too, Hawkmon!" Yolei ordered.

The two digimon Digivolved to their Champion forms. Aquilamon and Togemon jumped and got in front of Renamon.

MetalTyrannomon stopped and laughed. "This is it? Two little Champion level digimon?"

"Watch you tongue! We're tougher than we look!" Togemon said. While Aquilamon and Togemon were facing off with MetalTyrannomon, Renamon took the opportunity to run away. She ran over to Mimi and Yolei. The three of them ran and took cover.

"Ah, shut up!" MetalTyrannomon yelled.

"Grand Horn!" Aquilamon charged MetalTyrannomon and tried to hit him with his horns. MetalTyrannomon grabbed Aquilamon's horns while they were coming at him. MetalTyrannomon swung Aquilamon up and then down into the ground. Aquilamon bounced after he hit the ground.

"Togemon, Digivolve again!" Mimi yelled.

"Togemon, Digivolve to... Lilymon!" Lilymon flew up and faced off with MetalTyrannomon.

"Ah, a digimon that won't go down on the first attack!" MetalTyrannomon taunted.

"Flower Cannon!" Lilymon brought her arms together. They combined to form a cannon. She fired an energy blast at MetalTyrannomon. MetalTyrannomon lowed his head and blocked the attack.

"Heh. Is that all you got?" MetalTyrannomon said ever so nonchalantly.

Lilymon was shocked that her attack had no effect. She fired at MetalTyrannomon again in a vain attempt to stop MetalTyrannomon. None of her attacks even put a scratch into the metal armor of MetalTyrannomon. Suddenly, Aquilamon attacked MetalTyrannomon from behind while he was occupied with Lilymon. Aquilamon's attack did little more than anger MetalTyrannomon. He did a quick 180 degree turn and slashed at Aquilamon with his sharp talons. Aquilamon fell to the gound and de-evolved back into Hawkmon. "Now for you..." MetalTyrannomon turned back to face Lilymon again. "Nuclear Laser!" MetalTyrannomon generated a laser in the palm of his hand he fired it at Lilymon. She only just managed to dodge the attack. MetalTyrannomon fired again, and once again missed. He kept firing. Lilymon was forced to stay defensive. MetalTyrannomon's rate of fire was so great, she couldn't do anything to counter attack. Finally, after several shots, MetalTyrannomon managed to land a hit on Lilymon. She fell down, but wasn't injured to badly. MetalTyrannomon quickly ran up to her and slashed her with his talons. Lilymon instantly de-evolved back into Palmon.

"Oh no!" Mimi cried.

"Shh, Mimi!" Yolei said as she placed her hand over Mimi's mouth. "You'll give us away."

"Come out!" MetalTyrannomon shouted. "Your digimon are defeated. Come out now, or I will destroy them!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Mimi shouted and came running. "Please, don't do anything to Palmon! I won't be able to live with myself if anything happens to her."

"Great going, Mimi," Yolei said as she and Renamon came walking out of the spot where they had been hiding.

"I will let your digimon live, only if you tell me where Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg is."

Mimi looked away from MetalTyrannomon "What? I have no idea what you are talking about." Mimi was lying. She was trying to avoid eye contact so MetalTyrannomon wouldn't be able to tell she wasn't telling the truth.

MetalTyrannomon generated his laser in his palm again and pointed it Palmon lying on the ground. "Last chance, tell me where that egg is, or the Palmon bites it!"

Mimi dropped to her knees and started crying. "OKAY! The rest of the Digidestined took it to File Island to get Zhuqiaomon restored! There, I told you! NOW LEAVE PALMON ALONE!"

MetalTyrannomon pulled his arm away from Palmon. He started laughing. "Now was that so hard? Wait... how they going to restore Zhuqiaomon."

"I already told you all I'm going to. Why don't you just leave us alone!"

"Yeah, tough guy!" Yolei taunted. "You got what you wanted. At least you can have the decency to stop harassing us!"

MetalTyrannomon's face formed a scowl. Suddenly, he figured it all out. "No... They can't take him to UlforceVeeDramon!" MetalTyrannomon suddenly left as fast as he had appeared.

"I... can't believe I told him our plans like that..." Mimi said, tears falling down her face.

Yolei crouched down next to her friend and put her arm around her back. "Hey, it's okay."

Mimi threw Yolei's arm off. "No it's not! I let the team down!" Mimi ran over to Palmon's motionless body. "Please, be okay, Palmon..."

"Mimi, you did what you had to," Yolei said as she checked to see if Hawkmon was okay. "He was going to destroy Palmon. Besides, he has to go through Tai and the others. If we couldn't stop him, then they can."

"B-but..." Mimi stuttered.

"Your friend is right," Renamon said. "I have seen how strong your friends are. MetalTyrannomon will have no hope of stopping them." Renamon looked at Palmon. "She will be okay."

Mimi breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh... I was scared there for a minute."

Renamon walked over to Hawkmon. "Well, is he going to be okay?" Yolei asked.

Renamon looked over Hawkmon. "He will be fine. He just needs to rest."

Yolei hefted a sigh of relief as well. "Hawkmon has always been tough."

"What about Tai and the others?" Mimi asked. "That freak is going after them!"

"It's okay," Yolei answered digging her D-Terminal out of her pocket. "I will warn them that MetalTyrannomon is coming."

"What if he is too strong for them?"

"I saw them fight MetalTyrannomon before," Renamon said."It's suicide for him to go after them. He is basically digging his own grave by doing this."

"I hope you're right... If he messes things up, it will be all my fault..."

"You don't have to worry, Mimi," Yolei said. "I trust Tai."

* * *

Tai and the others wandered around in the lower level of the old ruins. "Just say it, Izzy. We're lost down here," Tai said.

"We are _not _lost," Izzy said.

"You led us down the same passage twice, then took us to a dead end. We're lost."

Izzy sighed. "Okay. We are lost."

"I thought you had the way to UlforceVeeDramon recorded in your laptop?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, that's what you told us back up top!" Gatomon said.

"Obviously, I made a mistake," Izzy replied. "Wait... I think I got it. Follow me!" Izzy started running. The Digidestined followed closely behind. Suddenly, they came to a dizzying drop. The Digidestined only just managed not to fall off to their deaths.

"You got it, huh?" Tai said sarcastically.

"He pulled a Davis!" Kari laughed. "He led us to a cliff and almost got us killed!" Tk, Patamon and Gatomon started laughing as well.

Izzy started getting very angry. "Okay, we've all had our fun at my expense. Now, can we get back to the task at hand please?"

"Stop laughing or you're gonna piss him off!" Tai said.

"Okay..." Kari said between breaths.

Tai turned and faced Izzy. "Alright, Izzy, get yourself together. We gotta find UlforceVeeDramon."

"Come on, Izzy! I know you can do it!" Tentomon said.

Izzy typed on his laptop for a moment. "Oh... I see what went wrong."

"What is it?" Agumon asked

"I never switched maps. I've been looking at the map for the upper level the whole time we have been down here..." Izzy felt like an absolute ass right now.

"That sounds like something Tai would do!" Kari teased.

Tai glared at Kari. "Don't make me pull out the embarrassing stories about you!"

Kari held her hand out in front of herself. "Okay, okay! Geez."

"Okay, I got it. Let's go," Izzy said. He walked to the front of the group and started leading them to UlforceVeeDramon's location. While they were walking, Kari's D-Terminal went off.

"What's that?" Gatomon asked.

"A message from Yolei," Kari replied.

"Let met guess, Mimi is going crazy back in the village, and it's driving her insane," Tk said

Kari gasped when she read the message. "Tai, you better take a look at this." She handed her D-Terminal to Tai.

"Crap..." Tai muttered.

"Something wrong?" Sora asked.

"MetalTyrannomon attacked the village again," Tai said handing Kari her D-Terminal back. "He overpowered them and forced them to tell him where we took Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg. He's coming after us now."

"What!" Tk, asked surprised.

"Izzy, I don't want to make you mad or anything, but you had better get us to UlforceVeeDramon really quick. We're about to have a visitor."

Izzy gulped. "O-okay..."

The Digidestined quickly made their way through the ruins. Their walking pace was so fast, they were almost running. Suddenly, the door to UlforceVeeDramon's dwelling came into view. The Digidestined felt a little relieved after seeing the door. "Good work, Izzy," Tai said. "Okay, everybody push as hard as you can. It will take all of us to open this this." The Digidestined walked up and started pushing on the door with all their might. "Come on! We can do this!" Finally, the door started moving. The weight of the door caused it to gain momentum and swing open the rest of the way by itself. The team huffed and puffed after pushing on the door. After they caught their breath, the team walked inside to go find UlforceVeeDramon.

"Is that the Digidestined I see?" UlforceVeeDramon said as saw the team walk into the room.

"Yep, it's us," Tai said.

"What brings you here?"

"This." Tai pushed Kari, who had been holding Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg ever since they left the village, forward. "This is-"

"Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg!"

"Yeah. He was destroyed." Tai left out the part about it was the Digidestined that had destroyed him. That was a long story. One he didn't have time to tell with MetalTyrannomon coming after then as fast as he could. "We need your help. Gaia is falling apart without Zhuqiaomon to keep things in order. We need you to restore him back to normal."

UlforceVeeDramon took Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg from Kari. "Of course Gaia is falling apart. Zhuqiaomon is the one who keeps that place from turning into a war zone! Curse the one's who did this!" The Digidestined all looked at each other. "Be restored, Zhuqiaomon!" Zhuqiaomon's Digiegg suddenly started to float. A bright light engulfed the egg. Suddenly, Zhuqiaomon was in his original form.

"Oh... what a night..." Zhuqiaomon muttered.

"We did it!" Tk cheered

"Not so fast!" Came a voice from behind the Digidestined. They all turned around to see who it was. It was MetalTyrannomon.

"Just won' give up will you?" Tai said, annoyed.

MetalTyrannomon saw that Zhuqiaomon had been restored. "Oh no! I'm too late!"

Zhuqiaomon suddenly locked his eyes on MetalTyrannomon. "You! You're that MetalTyrannomon that I had arrested for raiding villages on Gaia!"

"Huh...?" Tk said. "All this time, he was a criminal? And the only reason he didn't want Zhuqiaomon restored was because he didn't want to go jail?"

"Die, Zhuqiaomon! Nuclear Laser!" MetalTyrannomon tried in a vain attempt to destroy Zhuqiaomon. Zhuqiaomon raised his shield and blocked the attack.

"Desolation Blast!" Zhuqiaomon fired an energy blast from his eyes and hit MetalTyrannomon. He died instantly. "That will learn you to break the law on my continent!" Zhuqiaomon looked at the Digidestined. "It seems that I owe you a debt of gratitude. If you had not done all this for me, I would still be wrecking havoc back on Gaia."

"Wait a minute..." UlforceVeeDramon said. "_You_ were the one's who destroyed Zhuqiaomon?"

The Digidestined sweat dropped. "Well uh... Destroyed is such a strong word... We didn't so much kill him as we uh... purified him..."

"Why would you destroy him?" UlforceVeeDramon asked. "Have you become corrupt?"

Zhuqiaomon turned to face UlforceVeeDramon. "You don't understand. _I_ was the one who had become corrupt. I was collecting slaves from Gaia. If they hadn't stopped me, I still would be doing all those terrible things."

UlforceVeeDramon placed his hand on his chin. "I see... In that case, I think all has worked out well in the end."

"Okay, so this means that we are done with anything and everything to do with Zhuqiaomon, Gaia, and everything like that now, right?" Tk asked. "If it's possible, this adventure has been even more stressful than the deal with Devimon..."

"Yes, this marks the end," Zhuqiaomon said. "I promise that from now on, I will not ever let my anger take me over."

"Good. 'Cause if you don't, well have to come purify you again."

Zhuqiaomon nodded. "Thank you for all that you have done. I owe you a debt I can never repay."

"Zhuqiaomon, Gaia is in a sense of disarray," UlforceVeeDramon said. "You should return. You are needed."

"Indeed. Thank you again, Digidestined." UlforceVeeDramon used his power to transport Zhuqiaomon back to Gaia to restore order.

"Thanks for your help," Tai told UlforceVeeDramon.

"It was my pleasure. Now, allow me to return you to the surface." UlforceVeeDramon used his power to transport the Digidestined back outside the ruins.

"Boy, am I glad that is over now!" Tk said as he yawned.

"Yeah. Now we can focus on getting married," Kari said. Tk put his arm around her.

"Come on, gang," Tai said. "Let's go home."

* * *

I regret to inform you that this will be the second to last chapter. The next one will be the last one. Thanks for all your support along the way. You guys are the best anybody could ever hope for. Please R&R!


	18. Matrimony

Merry Christmas, friends. Well, this is it. The final chapter. This has been a fun ride. I hope you have all enjoyed it as much as I have. Thank you for stopping and taking a few minutes out of your day to read my story. You guys are all awesome!

* * *

Sora stood there, mesmerized. Her wedding dress was hung up on a hook that was attached to the closet door. Tai had just picked it up. Sora had been standing there for several minutes staring at it. It was still surreal to her that she was going to be wearing that dress in a couple of days at her wedding. She just couldn't believe it. She kept asking herself if this was real or not. The dress was so beautiful. And she was going to wear it. Sora started day dreaming about the wedding. What it was going to be like. How wonderful it would be that she and Tai were going to be married. Her life dream come true. She still couldn't believe it.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Tai said as he walked in the room.

"Yeah..."

"Of course... it can't even start to compare to how beautiful _you _are."

Sora blushed at Tai's comment. "You're just saying that!"

Tai wrapped his arms around Sora. "No. I really mean it. You are the world to me, Sora. I love you so much."

Sora rested her head on Tai's chest. "I love you too."

The two of them stood there and swayed back and forth. To them, the rest of the world didn't matter right now. All that mattered to them was each other. "Promise me you will always be mine..." Sora muttered.

"I promise. I won't ever leave you. I would die if I ever left you."

The two of them shared a passionate kiss. Agumon and Biyomon watched from the hallway. "Isn't that nice?" Biyomon said.

"Yeah. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside," Agumon replied.

* * *

Yolei and Kari walked down the concourse of the mall. "Last day as a free woman," Yolei said. "Planning on doing something crazy before you get the ole ball and chain put on your ankle?"

Kari gave Yolei the look. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Yolei laughed. "You do too!"

"Why would I be putting a ball and chain on my ankle?" Kari stuck her bottom lip out and started pouting.

"Oh, come on! You know I was just joking with you!"

Kari laughed this time. "You have no room to talk. I know about you going out with Ken."

Yolei's face turned a bright shade of scarlet. "How did you find out about that!"

"Davis. Who else?"

Yolei shook her head. "He's dead."

Kari laughed again. "I love TK so much..." she sighed.

"I hope when I fall in love, it will be as good as the love you and TK share..." Yolei daydreamed.

* * *

The parking lot at the local church was jam packed full. It was finally the big day. Today was the double wedding. Kari and Sora got dressed together in the Bride's dressing room. Needless to say, they were both very nervous. Tai and Sora were going to get married first, then Kari and TK would be next. "...I gotta calm down..." Kari said. "I'm going to sweat and mess my up my makeup."

"Chill, Kari, it's going to be okay," Sora replied. Truth be told, Sora was more nervous than Kari was. "I can't believe this day is actually here! I thought it would never come."

"I know. I can't remember how much I agonized over how far away the wedding was."

Suddenly, Mrs. Kamiya walked into the dressing room. She quickly ran up to Kari and threw her arms around her. "Oh, look at you! You're SO beautiful! Oh, that TK doesn't deserve you!" Mrs. Kamiya started crying. "I can't believe my little is all grown up now and is getting married. Seems like yesterday, I was changing your diapers."

Kari rolled her eyes. "Come on, mom! Not in front of Sora!"

Mrs. Kamiya laughed. She turned to Sora. "Sora... Sora... Sora, Sora, Sora... Somehow, I always knew my Taichi would end up with you some day. You have always been sort of a daughter to me. You and Tai were inseparable were you were children. And now, you two are tying the knot. Both of my children are getting married today. I am so proud."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. 'Kari, it's TK! I need to see you!'

"But TK, if you see me in my dress before the wedding, it will mean bad luck," Kari said.

'So, I won't look at you.'

"Okay..."

The door suddenly opened. TK was standing there facing the opposite direction. He walked backwards in the direction of Kari. "Hey, baby."

Kari walked up to TK and held his hands while he was facing the other way. "Yeah."

"I don't want to scare you or anything, but I am REALLY nervous right now..."

"I am too, TK. But I don't care. I love you, and I want to be with you. Nothing else matters to me."

"Yeah. I feel the same way. I just had to talk to you one more time before the wedding."

"Oh, you're so sweet. I love you!"

"I love you, too. I would kiss you, but I can't see you before the wedding starts."

"Don't worry. We're about to share a kiss in a few minutes."

TK laughed. "See you in a few, babe." With that, TK walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, being careful not to look at Kari.

* * *

The doors to the church flew open. Tai and TK emerged from the church triumphantly, both of them holding their brides in their arms. "Tai! TK!" Izzy shouted as he walked up.

"Wow, Izzy. I don't think I have ever seen you so dressed up before," Tai said.

"No time for jokes! There's a new emergency in the Digital World!"

"Real funny," TK sarcastically said.

"No joke! The Digital World needs the Digidestined."

"Uh, Izzy... we _just_ got married," Tai said. "Can't it wait?"

"Tai, THE DIGITAL WORLD IS IN DANGER!"

"But..."

"It's okay, Tai," Sora said.

"Huh?" Tai said surprised.

"Yeah, TK," Kari said.

"Do what!"

"We understand," Sora said. "The Digital World needs you."

"B-but... We still have the honeymoon..." TK whined.

"Duty calls..." Tai muttered as he put Sora down.

"This sucks..." TK groaned as he put Kari down.

"You better come back, Tai!" Sora said sternly.

"The same goes for you, TK!" Kari added.

TK sighed while Tai flashed his trademark cheesy grin. "We'll be back before dinner time."

* * *

The End! I want to send a personal thank you to all of you for reading. This would not have been possible without you. I regret to tell you this will be my last story. Thanks to all my fans during the time I have been writing and Merry Christmas!


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